Guardian Angel
by Lou-deadfroggy
Summary: Sometimes someone just falls out of the sky and into your life. Lost and scared with no grasp of any known language, love comes in the form of a halo. For some, an Angel can be more than just a guardian.
1. Chapter 1

**Guardian Angel**

… …

Bruce wandered aimlessly along the narrow street, vaguely heading towards the woods on the outskirts of the village. The night was cold enough for it to be unpleasant to walk around for much longer, the fading sun casting shadows and slits of colder air along the pavement. Somewhere at the back of his mind he worked out the route back to his small apartment. Underneath his feet, deep underground, ran the track of the Large Hadron Collider. That, of course, was further forward in the scientist's mind. He reached the last house, the edge of the village and paused for a moment before turning back.

Falling out of the sky was something both Bruce and the Hulk had a fair amount of experience of and having things fallen on them was also a common occurrence. It was almost second nature, a sixth sense that made him look up when the light fell swiftly down into the woods. Bruce broke into a run, knowing that of all the people in the area, he was the best equipped to deal with whatever had just fallen from the sky. As things fall, they appear nearer than their place of landing is, so Bruce found himself running for a while before he found an area of undergrowth that had been disturbed. Instead of landing in a clearing, the object had grazed the side of a large fir tree. As he neared it, he was instantly glad that the branches had broken the figure's fall. Lying crumpled by the trunk was a body. Bruce slowed, crouching down next to the figure. The first, most noticeable things about her were the angel-like wings that covered her body in a protective shell. Unsure exactly what he was dealing with, Bruce placed a hand on her neck. He felt a pulse and let out a sigh of relief. Now that he was sure that she was alive, he took a long look at the strange arrival. It appeared that under the wings lay a perfectly normal woman. It was hard to say since she was lying down but she appeared to be medium height and slimly built. Chocolate coloured hair fell in waves across her face, complete with twigs and debris from her fall through the tree. Her blue dress, somehow worn with the large feathery appendages on her back, was ripped and dirty. She had either lost her shoes or never had any at all. Gently, Bruce felt for any obvious neck or back wounds before he tried to move her. For some reason Hulk tried to break through and transform.

"Not now, big guy," Bruce muttered. He carried the prone body towards the village, hoping that no-one would notice. Who was he kidding? No-one would notice a guy carrying an angel through the streets of a sleepy French village. It being quite late, he managed to avoid everyone except for a rather surprised old man. The Frenchman sent him a curious glance then shrugged and carried on walking.

Bruce navigated his charge through his front door and onto the single bed. There he lay her down carefully on her side, unsure how to place her so as not to damage anything. Then he grabbed his mobile and called Tony.

"Hey, Tony? It's Bruce."

"Bruce! Hi, how's it going over in Europe?" his loud friend asked. Bruce ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Tony, you are never going to believe what just fell out of the sky." There was a brief pause.

"Thor?" Tony answered slowly, still sounding excited and his usual boisterous self.

"No, is there any way I can get to New York without going via civilisation? And quickly?" Bruce knew that Tony would be able to get him and his newfound flatmate to Stark Tower without having to go by conventional means.

"What's the emergency, Bruce?"

"An angel, quite literally, fell from the sky. I think we may need to talk to Thor and get her checked out. She's unconscious at the moment. Can you get us out of France without S.H.I.E.L.D knowing?" Bruce had never had the strongest bond of trust to the organisation, not when they equipped their planes with devices designed to kill him.

"Geneva airstrip, can you get across the border?" Tony asked after a moment. JARVIS' voice could be heard in the background.

"I'd rather not, Shengen agreement or not I don't think that the Swiss would appreciate a visit." He could almost hear Tony's brains whirring away.

"There's an airfield at Versoix, I'm leaving now. I'll call when I'm almost there."

"Thanks, Tony. I'll see if I can get the others notified too." Tony chuckled.

"I've got the Cap here and he's coming with. Clint and Natasha won't be in the dark for long. Just see if you can work out who your visitor is and where she came from. No, Pepper, we won't be back in time." Bruce smiled and hung up.

He did his best to give his guest a medical examination and decided that no vital bones in her neck or back were broken. Her left wing, however, looked slightly bent but he thought it best to leave it well alone. Bruce covered her up with the duvet then made a number of calls to the Hadron Collider facility, regretfully excusing himself from any further work with the team. Once he was completely free to leave, he began to pack. Having only been in France for a month he had very little scattered around the two-room flat and everything was in his suitcase within half an hour. That left him with one last thing to do before he could leave. He went outside and knocked on the door opposite his in the hallway.

"Ah, Bruce! Viens, entre! Ça va?" Jacques asked, shaking his tenant's hand. Bruce let the stream of rapid French go on for a moment before speaking.

"Je suis très désolé, Jaques, mais je dois partir. Voice ce que je vous dois, je regrette de ne pas vous dire avant. Je pars tout suite. Merci pour tout ce que vous avez fait pour moi. Bruce carried on with his apologies for a few moments until the conversation ended in a lot of handshaking and pats on the back. Eventually Bruce managed to leave and get back to the other flat in time to take Tony's call.

"You'd better start on your way to that airfield because we're going to be there soon."

"Thanks, Tony, see you shortly." Bruce hung up again and turned to the unconscious form on his bed. Then he realised that she was no longer unconscious.

"Asgard?" she asked in a petrified voice. He shook his head.

"No, um, Midgard." Bruce really whished that Thor was on the plane with Tony, instead of Captain America.

"Oh." His patient looked disappointed and pale.

"Hey, can you walk? Did you hurt yourself?" Then he saw how awkwardly she was raising her wing. "Yeah, you did. Alright, come on, let's get you to Stark."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

… …

Bruce ran through every way he could possibly contact Thor as he tried to help his visitor up. The second he touched her hand, however, she pulled it away, glaring at him. She then yelled at him in a flowing language he had no hope of understanding. Her face seemed suddenly haughty and she almost looked down on him.

"Okay, I'm just trying to help. Come on." He gestured for her to follow him as he walked out of the room. Hesitantly, she got off the bed. Any expression of higher standing was replaced by her former one of sheer terror.

"Asgard? Odin?" she asked. Bruce sighed, repeating his gesture for her to follow him.

"No, um, Thor sometimes." Her eyes lit up.

"Thor?" Another stream of that language followed, this time more excited and less frightened. She now followed him without any reservation, despite standing slightly awkwardly because of her wing. Bruce unlocked his car and hauled his suitcase into the boot. She stared at it, asking a series of ever more drawn out questions in the hope of him understanding her. He opened the passenger door and pointed for her to get in. With some difficulty and a stifled scream, she managed to get both of her wings in. Bruce saw how uncomfortable the position was and put the roof down immediately. She jumped when he turned the key.

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay." After a moment she calmed down and he managed to drive off without her moving too much. Corners made her jumpy.

It didn't take them long before they reached the airstrip. Tony arrived five minutes later. The jet landed a bit too close for Bruce's passenger's comfort. He managed to get her out of the car but going towards the loud aircraft proved more difficult.

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said an Angel," Tony called as he and Steve ran over. Worried that they may crowd her, Bruce shook his head.

"I there any way we can contact Thor? She keeps asking after him and Asgard," he asked. Tony frowned, thinking.

"Maybe we can contact Jane, come on." Tony turned and headed off towards his jet. Steve, however, was staring at her.

"Hey, has she got a name?" the Super-Soldier asked. Bruce had wondered but getting to Tony and the relative privacy of Stark Tower had seemed a priority.

"Ask her, I can't understand a word she says," he answered, following Tony.

"Hi, I'm Steve," the blond man said, pointing to himself and feeling like he was in some strange Tarzan type movie. He then proceeded to point at her, realising how stupid the whole thing looked.

"Arella," she answered, smiling slightly. Tony called at them from the jet door.

"You coming, Captain?" Steve walked towards them, making sure that Arella was following. He pointed at Tony, then Bruce.

"Tony, Bruce," he said, almost replacing their names by seemingly appropriate adjectives.

… …

After a brief moment of panic during take-off, Arella sat quietly by the window. Steve, not knowing how to fly the jet, sat across from her. Tony was flying and Bruce had a phone glued to his ear.

"Hello, Jane? It's Bruce Banner. I was wondering if you had a way to contact Thor, it's fairly important. No, it's not Loki. Really? That's great. We'll be at the Stark Tower in about an hour. Okay, thanks." He shot a grin at Arella. "You know Thor, right?"

"Thor?" Another stream of incomprehensible words came from her but she nodded vigorously. "Frigga?" There was a pause as the three Avengers tried to work out who she meant.

"Right, let's get Thor here first and then we can work out what else she wants." Tony suggested from the pilot seat. The jet was pretty much flying itself and he had nothing much to do. Bruce approached Arella slowly, holding up a medical kit. He pointed to her wounded wing.

"I'm going to see if I can help, okay?" he asked, trying to get his point across. She held out the feathery appendage for him to inspect. Gently, he ran a hand across the part that appeared broken, finding the actual injury partly by her varying expressions of pain. Bruce hadn't had much experience with birds' wings or anything similar but he rejected any cast-like forms of treatment. Instead he stepped back, holding out a roll of bandages.

"Do you know what to do about it?" he asked, well aware that she couldn't understand him. It just seemed natural that he should ask anyway, silence would have just felt odd whilst he was in his doctor's role. Arella took the fabric and began to bind her wing up against her body. Bruce sat back, watching.

"So, do you think Angels eat?" Tony asked from up front. For some reason Steve went directly to the food compartment, surprising Bruce by his knowledge of the jet.

"We have sandwiches, uh, crisps, chocolate bars and soda," he called out.

"You have soda? Just soda? You've changed." Bruce turned to Tony in astonishment. The billionaire raised his hands in mock innocence.

"Flying under the influence is dangerous, I'd never put myself at risk!" Bruce's eyebrows threatened to disappear into his hairline.

"Let's hope she's not lactose intolerant or anything," Steve said as he passed a cheese sandwich to Arella and another to Bruce. He chucked the third to Tony before sitting down again. After watching everyone else tuck into theirs, Arella did the same.

"The booze is in the bar cabinet behind your head," Tony said at last. Steve rolled his eyes at the Iron man but Bruce just sighed.

"That is where it is staying. How long until we reach New York?"

"Look out of the window, Banner, and never ask me that question again," Tony told him. Arella once more freaked out as they landed.

… …

"It's a secret, no-one knows about it apart from us," Jane was telling them. Pepper sat next to a jumpy Arella, trying to persuade her that the monitor wasn't going to hurt her. Bruce, Steve and Tony stood around the room, each with good views of Jane's face on the screen.

"Then we don't need the details. We just need Thor to come and take Arella here back to Asgard," Bruce said.

"Knowing how she got here would be a bonus," Tony added.

"Alright, he'll be there soon." Jane disconnected the call.

"So, now what?" Steve asked. Pepper turned to Tony.

"We need some way of talking to her. One of us has to learn her language, or she should learn English," she said.

"Well don't look at me, I suck at languages. Bruce?" All three Avengers stated that they were not natural linguists but both Steve and Bruce said that they would try.

"Come on, let's see if we can find you anything else to wear," Pepper said as she leapt up, pulling Arella with her. With a reassuring grin, she led the way out of the living room. "I've got a really cute dress that could fit over your wings." Once they reached Pepper's room, she began to take out items from her wardrobe and place them on the bed. Looking at Arella's dress for inspiration, she saw how it was designed around her wings. It had a wide strap that went round her neck then a gap for her shoulder blades before it wrapped around her lower back and down to just above her knees.

"We've got dresses like that here too, you'll just have to find ones that have the right sort of straps," she said cheerfully. Then she remembered to teach Arella English. "Dress."

"Drehss."

"DREss," Pepper repeated. After a few more goes, Arella got it. They proceeded to name every item in Pepper's room.

"I hope you're good at languages," she muttered. Arella, having learnt the word 'good' as a double thumbs up, smiled.

"Good," she answered. "Arella good." Pepper grinned and nodded.

"Yup, you'll be fine." Suddenly, the whole tower shook.

"I am arrived!" Thor yelled. With a weary sigh, Pepper ushered her new pupil out into the lift. With a large set of white feathery wings, it was quite a squeeze.

"Thor," she explained, seeing Arella's face light up. The lift opened to reveal Thor in the living room along with the other three. The Asgardian God's face hit the floor when Arella stepped out of the lift.

"Arella?" She was across the floor in a flash, flinging her arms around the blond God and bursting into tears. A rapid flow of her own language followed; the pair half-hidden by her wings. Eventually Thor managed to get a word in and they fell into a whispered and hurried discussion. Then Thor stepped back and raised his hammer, his expression murderous. He began yelling in a strange language and Tony wondered whether he could remove everything of value from the room before he exploded.

"Whoa, Thor, calm down. What happened?" he asked cautiously.

"A great misdeed, Iron Man, for which Thor will seek revenge."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Author's note: Just before we begin, I'd just like to thank everyone who reviewed, followed or favourited. I'm really pleased that you guys like this! On with the story.**

… …

They stared at the blond god for a moment until Arella let off a pleading stream of her own language, trying to calm Thor down. Eventually he stopped looking as if he would blow the Tower up. Tony deemed it safe to approach him.

"What happened, Thor?" They all subconsciously held their breath but Thor didn't answer. Instead he asked Arella a series of urgent questions to which she shook her head violently.

"For the good of many, this evil will go unpunished, for now. My friends, I present," he began before pausing to ask Arella another question. "Arella. She has come here seeking Asgard and refuge. It is not safe for us to return for a time, the passage must be kept secret, but may we stay a while, Iron Man?" Tony sighed, thinking of everything Thor was likely to break.

"Of course, you're both welcome here. Uh, how long until you can use the portal thing again?" he asked. Thor shrugged.

"Jane will tell me when. I will not stay with you long, my friend, for I wish to visit her for a time." The blond Asgardian turned to Arella. He asked her another question. The winged girl looked around shyly and then smiled at Tony. He grinned.

"Sure you can, Pepper would love it!" Accompanied by an over-exaggerated nod from both him and Pepper, Arella got the message that she was welcome.

"I don't think S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to know about her," Steve said quietly. The others looked at him in surprise. It was unlike him to want to hide something for the authorities.

"I agree with Steve. Arella's only going to be here for a short time anyway, why trouble them?" Bruce added.

"It is not their concern. What has happened is terrible but Arella does not wish you to know. She says that she will stay here until I leave, if Iron Man wills it. I shall go now, farewell my friends." Thor bowed to Arella and said what presumably meant good-bye in her own language, was before leaving via the balcony to return to Jane. When the god of thunder has left them, Pepper pulled Arella back towards the lift.

"I've just thought of a dress that would suit you perfectly!" Tony sighed, shaking his head in a resigned defeat.

"I've just agreed to let Pepper's new dolly-dress-up stay with us. She'll spend the next week or so finding ways to overcome the wing problem." Bruce and Steve laughed at the thought of Pepper dressing Arella up like a doll.

"Well, she won't exactly be able to go for a walk-about," Steve said. "She'll have to do something all day."

"Maybe learn English so that we can at least talk to her," muttered Tony. "We can't even use Google translate."

… …

"New York," Steve said for what felt like the hundredth time. He pointed to the city rooftops.

"Noo Yok," Arella repeated. Whilst she seemed to pick up words quickly enough, her pronunciation was appalling. On JARVIS' advice they had started writing everything down as well so that she would learn to read at the same time.

"New York." Steve wrote the two words on the pad and watched as Arella tried to copy them. Her own writing, they had learnt after she had written her name down, was in a more Asian style alphabet with complicated characters. Even JARVIS couldn't translate it from the samples she had given them. Steve thought that her own language sounded and looked much prettier than English.

"New York," said Arella, finally getting the word almost right. She then pointed at Steve. "Steve Captain Amica." He stared at her for a moment then burst out laughing.

"Yes, I'm Captain America too. What about you? Just Arella?" It took her a moment before she understood. She looked down at the street below the balcony, her face suddenly sad.

"Arella," she answered eventually. They sat in awkward silence until Steve had an idea. He pointed to her large white feathery wings.

"Wings," he said. Arella rolled her eyes at him.

"Angel wings," she answered. Obviously Pepper had already told her what the word for her appendages was. "Arella Angel?" Steve thought about it for a moment. For some reason he doubted that Arella saw herself as abnormal, he suspected that most people on her world had wings.

"Yeah, I guess that would be an appropriate codename. Angel, welcome to the Avengers." She frowned at him. "Never mind."

… …

"Steve, girl ground want you!" Arella called through the intercom to where he, Tony and Bruce were laying out plans to go and help some flood victims up in Canada. It had been two months since Arella had arrived; Jane kept insisting that if they opened the route back to Asgard too soon S.H.I.E.L.D. or worse another enemy would find it. Meanwhile Arella was making progress with her English and could almost make herself understood most of the time. Steve left the desk where a multitude of screens showed a bit too much data for his liking and met her coming out of the lift. Arella had developed a dislike of the thing but since her alternative was ninety floors of stairs, she used it with reluctance.

"Who is she?" he asked her slowly. "Her name?"

"Calee, yellow hair. Want Steve Rogrs." Captain America groaned, glaring at Tony as he sniggered.

"Can you get someone to tell her I'm not here?" the fair-haired man begged. Both Bruce and Arella looked at them curiously, albeit for different reasons.

"Cap's got an admirer," Tony explained. "Saving a girl's life is a sure fire way to get her to like you. This one, Carly, was in a building he defended in the battle against Loki and she's been stalking him ever since." Bruce chuckled as Steve turned red.

"She showed up at my apartment a few times, she's followed me around Brooklyn a few times too. I hoped she wouldn't turn up her though," he muttered. Arella looked at them, her grey eyes wide.

"Loki?" she asked, sounding slightly apprehensive.

"No, no, not here. Don't worry. Loki's in Asgard," Bruce reassured her quickly. She nodded, crossing to look curiously at the screens next to him.

"Sorry, lying isn't something a super-soldier should do," Tony told Steve, trying not to laugh. The blond man glared at him.

"JARVIS," he began before Tony cut him off.

"JARVIS, please inform our visitor how to reach this floor." If looks could kill, the billionaire would have been lying on the floor dead and Captain America accused of murder.

"Of course, at once," JARVIS replied. It only took a moment for the lift to arrive from street level and Steve immediately looked for somewhere to disappear to.

"Steve no uh, sees Calee?" Arella asked. Bruce and Tony started laughing again.

"Yeah, Cap, won't you stay and meet your guest?" Tony again received the death glare. Steve's chance of escape was gone, however, as the lift doors opened to reveal a short blond woman in her early twenties. Her hair, dyed from the roots down, hang limply after having been attacked by straighteners for hours. Arella was the first person she saw, the winged girl being directly in the lift's line of sight. Carly's mouth hung open dumbly for a moment until Tony began to talk.

"Hi, you must be Carly! I'm Tony." A rather vigorous handshake followed. Carly smiled, or rather plastered a simpering grimace over her face.

"I'm so happy to meet you! Hi, Steve," she gushed. The way she said Steve made his skin crawl, she drew out the e in way that made her voice sound like it was going in and out of tune. "I was just wondering where you were, you weren't at home. I'm so glad I got meet your friends. I'm Carly!" Neither Bruce nor Arella replied. "So, are you off to a fancy dress party or are you a superhero too?" The emphasis on 'superhero' made it sound comically childish. Arella turned to Bruce for some idea of what to do.

"We'll leave you two alone, come on guys," Tony suggested and they left the room, Arella sending inquisitive glances back. Steve shot both of his fellow Avengers death glares.

"That was cruel, leaving him alone in there with her. Who knows what sort of weirdo she is," Bruce began.

"Oh, he'll be fine. If Captain America can't hold his own against an obsessive girl, we're all in trouble," Tony cut him off and they chuckled. Arella's very confused expression simply made them laugh harder until Bruce took pity on her.

"Carly likes Steve. Steve does not like Carly. Tony is evil," he said slowly. After a few seconds they assumed Arella got the point by the sly grin that crossed her face. Either that or there was another joke that she had created through the mess of translation.

… …

"Tony Stark, prepare to die!" Steve yelled a painfully long time later. He had managed to get Carly to leave and extract the promise that she would never call at Stark Tower again. Tony ducked behind Pepper as the super-soldier stormed into the room, his face murderous. Innocently Arella popped up form where she had been learning colours with Tony.

"Steve likes Carly," she said loudly. His glare turned from the grinning billionaire to the off-worlder.

"You had better not understand what you're saying," he muttered then stormed off. Arella giggled after the door had closed.

"Steve and Carly! Starly!" she called.

"Okay, I thought that only Sherlock fans did that," Bruce said to Tony and Pepper.

"I think it's the whole of fanfiction actually," Pepper replied.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

… …

"Two weeks and any residue from the portal will have dissipated enough to not show up on any scanners. Two weeks and Arella can leave," Jane told them. The slightly sad note in her voice was very carefully concealed but nonetheless it was still there. Thor would be leaving as well.

"Okay, thanks, Jane," Bruce said before disconnecting. He turned to Arella and forced a slight smile. "Two weeks and you go to Asgard." He had expected her to smile but she merely nodded. "Aren't you pleased?" he asked.

"I came Earth, look Asgard. Now, not look Asgard so much," Arella answered in broken English. Bruce found it easier to understand her than the others did since he was used to being in countries besides the U.S. unlike Tony or Steve.

"You're not from Asgard? Asgard isn't your home?" She frowned at him.

"Home?" Bruce tried to find a way to explain the concept. Nouns were usually easy; they simply showed Arella the object and gave it a name. Abstract ideas such as home were more challenging. As he was thinking, Steve walked in, dressed in motorcycle gear.

"Jane said two weeks," Bruce told him. The blond man nodded stiffly and then grinned at Arella. He held up a motorcycle helmet and leather clothes.

"I got something to show you," he said. She took the helmet curiously. "It's a helmet."

"Helmet. What do?" she asked him, turning it over in her hands.

"It protects your head, here." Steve put it on her, fastening the chin strap. Tendrils of hair escaped across her shoulders as she peered out.

"You got to wear these too, Pepper got some to fit you," he explained. Arella took the pair of leggings and odd-shaped jacket.

"Do you think it's safe, taking her out on a bike? Won't her wings get in the way?" Bruce asked, having a few reservations about motorbikes. Steve shrugged.

"She can fold them in pretty tight and we won't be going fast enough to make them much of a problem. Besides, she can't really get into cars." The scientist kept his objections to himself as Arella came back fully dressed in protective gear.

"Ready? See you later, Bruce." Steve led her to the lift and down to the street-level garage where he had parked his bike. Arella had overcome her initial fear of the loud engines in cars but hadn't really left the tower since she would attract a lot of attention. Steve had been planning on showing her Brooklyn for a while and as soon as Pepper found some suitable clothes he had gone to find her. Now that he knew she only had two weeks, he was determined to show her everything. He kicked the bike into life, beckoning for her to get on the back. Two large wings encased him, blocking out any hope of seeing at all. Arella sat awkwardly, folding her wings against her back. Finally Steve could see again.

"Ready?" She nodded her head, drooping from the weight of the helmet. He pulled his own on and urged the bike forward. With a yelp of surprise Arella grabbed his waist firmly. Steve grinned to himself as he drove out of the garage and onto New York's busy roads. They attracted a fair amount of attention and stares but he hoped that most people would simply pass them off as fancy-dress partygoers or something similar. It didn't take him long to reach the Brooklyn Bridge and head over towards the park directly opposite his block. It was, in his opinion, the nicest park in the city, even topping Central Park. He stopped and kicked down the stand. Arella got off, deeming it safe to remove her helmet. Chocolate coloured curls cascaded down as she shook her head. Steve opened the compartment under his seat and put both of their helmets in there. Then he led her towards the park.

Slightly overgrown trees, covered in ivy and lichen formed pillars along the only gravel path directly through the centre. Wildflowers and long grasses edged the path, stretching back into the small area of woodland. It was the first green place Arella had seen since leaving France. A broad smile split across her face.

"They're trees," he told her.

"Like tres, trees." To prove her point Arella promptly ran up to one and began to climb it. Steve watched her swing up into the branches like an overactive kid. Eventually she climbed down from a different tree. He wasn't quite sure of how she had gotten there.

"So, you like the park, huh?" he asked, sitting amongst the wildflowers. She sat down next to him, spreading her wings out. Steve was surprised at how large they actually were, at least ten feet if not twelve from one tip to the other. He wondered why he had never seen her fly. He pointed at the birds hovering in the sky above them.

"Those are birds. They're flying with wings, like yours." Arella stared at the birds for a while.

"I flyn with wings," she said and got up. With two beats of what he came to realise were incredibly powerful appendages she was up in the air and circling the clearing between the trees. She looked down at him, returning his grin.

"Well, I guess that beats Tony's suit," Steve murmured to himself. From where he was sitting she did look like an angel, all she was missing was the halo. Arella landed gracefully beside him.

"Angel grows a more appropriate name all the time," he told her.

"Angel?" She still only understood a few words.

"Angel."

… …

"Tony, can I have a word?" Bruce asked quietly from the doorway. Tony pointed to the sofa, not looking up from the designs for the suit he was revising. His friend waited patiently for him to finish.

"So, what's up?" he asked eventually. Bruce sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. Tony crashed into the armchair opposite.

"It's Arella. I don't want her to leave," Bruce mumbled. For a second Tony stared at him before bursting into laughter.

"Bruce Banner, I think you like her!" he cried, dissolving into giggles. "Oh, that's great! You found her in the woods and now the beautiful strange girl with angel wings has captured your heart!" Bruce glared at him.

"Stop it. I should have known talking to you was a mistake. I'm not in love with her; I've known her about two months! I just don't want her to go to Asgard in two weeks' time! Stop laughing, Stark!" Tony managed to get a grip on himself, with difficulty.

"Okay, okay. I apologise. It's just that it's all a bit too much like a bad romance novel. So, what? Are you going to ask Thor to wait or come back in a few months? We don't know why she's going to Asgard or even where she's from. Hell, we can barely talk to her! Come on, Bruce, if she wants to go home let her. I bet she ran away from some arranged marriage or was looking for her guy and ended up here. That would be reasonable, if this is all one bad love story." Bruce stood up and made to leave the room.

"Forget I ever mentioned it," he snapped and walked out. Tony began to laugh again, wiping his eyes. Then he realised that he actually had to sort the problem out before he had a moping Hulk to deal with. Arella was still out with Steve, presumably in Brooklyn or somewhere he knew well. Tony got up and went to find Pepper who maybe could offer a few ideas.

… …

"Hi Steve! Fancy meeting you here!" Arella turned, her face turning from the cheery smile she had worn for the past hour to faint annoyance than a sly grin.

"Calee! Steve, Calee," she said to the blond man as he attempted to flee. Carly, a wolfish grimace plastered over her foundation smeared face, bounded up to them, her hips swinging in a way most people couldn't manage.

"Giving your friend a tour? I didn't catch your name," Carly whined. Arella stared back at her blankly.

"Come on, Arella, let's go," muttered Steve as he pulled her back towards the bike.

"Ella? That's a lovely name! Are you one of Steve's superhero friends? You guys are so awesome!" Not understanding a word beside Steve's name, Arella looked around, confused.

"Carly, I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave us alone, okay?" Steve began. A high pitched answer came far too quickly.

"Oh, sure I get that you need space. Just give me call when you're ready, okay? I'll see you around, Ella!" Surprised at how easy getting rid of her had been, Steve jammed his helmet on in order to leave as soon as he could. Arella slipped her arms around his waist again, leaning her chin on his shoulder. They both missed the look of livid jealousy Carly shot them.

… …

**I think Caroline Bingley may have spilled over into Carly… She's an exaggeration I know but Steve did save her life. You get fangirls in real life.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

… …

"If you make one more joke about the pepperoni, you're staying with the Cap until Thor comes for you," Tony warned, brandishing the pizza slice. Arella smiled up at him, the very picture of innocence.

"What?" she asked sweetly. He sighed and passed her the pizza box. She held up a slice, inspecting the circles of ham on it. "Pepper and Tony," she began.

"I mean it! Steve, you have a spare room, right?" Pepper was fighting very hard in the corner not to burst out laughing.

"Yeah sure, say it's pepperoni again, Arella, and you can come stay with me." Not understanding what they were going on about, she began to eat, getting sauce all around her mouth.

"Some girls, they can be witty and intelligent and beautiful but as soon as they touch pizza, they become messy and childish," Tony complained loudly. Steve gave Arella a tissue.

"She probably eats everything with inside out spoons or chopsticks," Pepper said. "Give us a slice, Tony!" The four of them decided not to wait for Bruce to appear from the lab. When the scientist did arrive, there was very little pizza left.

"We ate most of your share," Tony told him cheerfully.

"Thanks. I think I've got a way for Arella to talk to us in more than just baby speak." They stared at him.

"How?" Steve asked immediately.

"Arella, in Asgard, can you speak to Odin and Thor? In Asgard, hang on." He flicked through a series of notes on his monitor. Then he repeated his question in a strange, raspy language. Arella looked shocked for a moment before breaking out in a huge smiled and replying very quickly.

"What's this?" Tony peered over his friend's shoulder. "Asgardian?"

"I listened to JARVIS's security tapes from when Thor was here. The minute before Pepper got out of the lift, where the only security cameras up here are, you can hear them talking in her language then they switch, once Thor starts speaking, to Asgardian. Thor gave us a sample before and Jane shared a pretty big dictionary of it with me just now. Plus it's similar to some Norse and German dialects. I think if Arella can talk in Asgardian slowly enough for JARVIS to give a running translation, we'll be able to talk to her in a roundabout fashion. I did try her language, but I can't make head or tail of it."

"That's brilliant!" Pepper told him, her pizza forgotten. "What do we say though?"

"Can you understand us?" Steve asked slowly. JARVIS translated it after a moment. The reply came back with a slight delay.

"Yes, the wall is speaking the tongue of Asgard. May I ask that you explain to her what I am, sir?" JARVIS added; the computer slightly offended at being called a wall.

"Not right now, Arella and I need to have a conversation!" Pepper seemed thrilled at the thought; as if having a conversation was a novel idea and she had never had one before. She pulled her friend out of the lounge, leaving the men to their pizza.

"How long did that take you?" Tony asked, sitting down in Pepper's now vacant seat. Bruce shrugged as he helped himself to a slice.

"All day. It's a damn difficult language to translate. It doesn't help that they all talk like Thor does which makes everything mean different things. Apparently they have three ways of saying the before a noun and the noun changes depending on where it is. It's like the most difficult parts of every language on Earth mixed into one. I think JARVIS will thank us when Arella actually learns English."

"It just seems weird, having a conversation with her but with someone else talking, even if it is only JARVIS. It kind of makes a private conversation impossible," said Steve. Tony raised an eyebrow.

"What would Captain America possibly want to say to an otherworldly angel that should be kept private?" he asked. Steve glared at him.

"Shut up, Stark." Bruce didn't miss the slight blush that crept up from the blond man's neck.

… …

"Okay, this is actually pretty odd. It's like having a conversation with JARVIS and you at the same time. Is there another way, apart from learning?" Pepper asked after the computer had repeated their discussion on dresses and Arella's home.

"If I may, I suggest that you translate written text, if my voice is disconcerting," JARVIS said. A tablet appeared in mid-air and he translated it for Arella. She took the device and began to type using the runes set up to replace a QWERTY keyboard.

"_Is this good? I am not as proficient in writing as I am in speaking for I have not studied the tongue of Asgard as much as my tutor wanted me to."_ Arella sent her a sheepish smile.

"_What were you doing instead?"_ wrote Pepper, one eyebrow raised in suspicion. Her friend went slightly red.

"_Reading storybooks."_ Pepper laughed.

"_That's not too bad; there are worse things you could have been doing."_ They began to talk, in their odd fashion, about trivial things until Pepper asked the question she had wanted to for weeks.

"_Why did you come here?"_ Arella didn't answer for a while then began to type away furiously. Pepper waited for her to finish. When she read what was written, she couldn't help but cry.

"_Once, my father was our leader, our Odin. He was fair to the people; our lands were prosperous and rich. No one can go without making enemies. A warrior, a great General, wanted our power for himself. He took control of our army and marched on our home. My father and elder brothers were killed defending us but some friends helped my mother escape with my younger brother and me. We hid in the countryside for a long time; Mother said that we had escaped the danger. It was not so. The General found us."_ The passage broke off and Pepper looked up to see Arella hugging her knees. Without a word she slipped an arm round her friend's shoulders. Arella took the tablet back and finished her story in the same unemotional tone.

"_He had my mother and brother killed. I was spared because he wished to marry me and prevent any future claims to his throne from either my line or a cousin's. It is law to have a full year of betrothal. That year should have been up by now. My only friends in the court helped me to open the portal and made it seem as though I had taken my own life. That way there would be no more war to put either myself or one of my descendants on the throne. I meant to go to Asgard, for I have been there many times before. I ended up here." _Arella let out a shuddering breath and sat up, wiping her eyes. Pepper gave her a tight hug.

"You okay?" she asked, forgetting the translator. "You good?" Arella nodded slowly.

"Speak dresses now?"

"Sure," Pepper told her. She was still shocked at what she had just been told. She had heard similar stories, in history books or on the news. This seemed much more real.

… …

"Hi, Steve," Arella said as she walked out onto the roof. Steve sat by the edge, staring up at the stars. He turned and smiled at her.

"Hi." She sat down beside him, her wings stretched out behind them. "Do you like talking to Pepper now?" he asked. For some reason JARVIS didn't seem to work on the roof but she got the message.

"Yes. Pepper good friend. I speak JARVIS, tell me new words. I speak much good English now." She smiled at the length of her sentence.

"You'll be speaking like one of us soon. Well, if you weren't leaving." She looked at him pleadingly. "Soon, you will speak like us; but soon you're going to Asgard." Arella nodded her understanding, looking slightly glum. "Do you want to go to Asgard?" Steve asked her.

"Not so much. Like Earth. Like New Yok. Like friends," she answered. "Tony tower JARVIS, Asgard no JARVIS help." Steve laughed.

"Yeah, JARVIS can make life a lot easier. So, you want to stay just because of that, huh. Not Pepper or Bruce or Tony or me?" His eyes twinkled teasingly.

"Like friends. Speak Pepper much, Tony laugh, Bruce nice, Steve nice." She smiled at him then looked up at the heavens. "Asgard pretty. Thor nice, Asgard friends nice." Arella sighed.

"You don't have to go. You could always stay here," Steve told her but he didn't think she understood. "I don't want you to go," he almost whispered. From his tone of voice it was obvious what he had said. Arella just looked at him for a long time.

"Why?" she asked him softly.

"Do you know the word: kiss?" He leaned towards her and brushed his lips against hers. "That's why."

Bruce had stood, unnoticed in the doorway for about a minute. He turned and bolted to the lift, shaking.

"Bruce, are you okay?" Tony asked as his friend rushed past him. Bruce didn't say anything. Tony cast a glance out of the window to where Steve and Arella were sitting unusually close.

"Fuck."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

… …

"Bruce!" Tony yelled, running to the lift. He wasn't quite fast enough though. Furiously he pounded the controls but when the cage eventually reappeared, it was empty. He swore loud enough for Steve and Arella to hear.

"What's going on?" the blond man asked, peering curiously in from the doorway. Tony sighed.

"Nothing, you two just stay here or do something," he snapped, not in any mood to talk to Captain America right then. Tony punched in the ground floor controls and left a bemused Steve behind.

"What Tony do?" Arella asked him.

"I don't know. Oh well, come on, I'll show you some more of Brooklyn." He went to grab the helmets.

Tony stepped out into the open air, looking vainly for any signs of Bruce or the Hulk. Something told him that if Bruce was still in control he would head for the quickest way out of the city in order to keep people safe. If Hulk was around, New York was in trouble. Turning a corner he saw Bruce's car parked in the middle of the road. Tony made the decision to go and get his suit before going after Hulk. Steve and Arella had disappeared and he hoped that the idiot blond wouldn't get in Hulk's way. He may not be best of friends with the Captain but he didn't think letting him die would earn him too many brownie points from anyone besides Bruce. Minutes later he was flying over Manhattan, searching for the trail of destruction that would signal where his green friend was. Amazingly Hulk had managed to make a beeline for Central Park and was ripping up trees. Tony had just found the time to grab some clothes for Bruce and put them in the suit's storage pocket. He landed near Hulk.

"Hey, big guy, going to stop destroying the only park in Manhattan?" Tony asked.

"Go Iron Man! Hulk smash!" the green creature roared. He then did just that, pulverising a harmless tree.

"Calm down! It's not New York you're angry with. So the Captain got the girl, she's leaving anyway! Come on Bruce!" Tony tried again. Hulk threw a trunk at him as reward for his efforts.

"Go Iron Man! Hulk smash! Puny Banner no hear you!"

After about three hours Hulk's anger had worn off enough for him to slip back into Bruce's unconscious form. Tony took him back to Stark Tower, leaving the clean-up and cover story until later.

The moment he walked in, though, he was greeted with a very anxious Pepper.

"Steve called. All he managed to say was that he and Arella were in trouble, and then the line was cut. I managed to trace it to somewhere in Brooklyn, about a mile from Steve's apartment. It must be broken now, I can't find them anywhere," she rushed, fidgeting around.

"Okay, okay, calm down. Stay here with Bruce and keep him here when he wakes up. Don't mention either of them. I'll find them." He was cut short by a loud crash.

"I am arrived!" Thor yelled. Tony swore quietly as the god of thunder strode in from the roof. "I have come to take Arella to Asgard!" Thor was incapable of anything besides a shout. "Where is she?" Tony sighed, wishing that Thor would put down his hammer first.

"We don't know. We got a distress call from the Captain. I was just heading out to look for them." Thor stared at him, shocked.

"We must find them, Iron Man. Let us go at once!" Thor burst through the door, causing it a fair amount of damage in the process.

… …

"Fancy dress?" a random guy asked loudly as Steve and Arella walked by. He just kept walking, ushering the winged girl along with him. A row of small shops selling newspapers, books and odd little artefacts wrestled for space to their right, an empty road ran to their left. Arella stopped at a fruit stall, pointing to a box of oranges.

"What?" she asked.

"Oranges, they're fruit. Food," Steve told her, handing over some change to the boy minding the stall. He began to peel one and gave it to her. After showing her how to check for pips, they carried on along the street. Suddenly a van came shooting out of a tiny alleyway a few feet in front of them, stopping violently before it was fully visible from the road. The side door opened and Steve felt a jab in his back as someone came up behind them.

"Get in, Captain America and birdy too," a gruff voice ordered in his ear. Frightened, Arella had spread out her wings, knocking several people over including the man behind her.

"Arella, fly away! Go to Tony!" Steve yelled at her. She lunged towards him, already off the ground. A third man grabbed her feet and managed to effectively pull her out of the air. Then she saw and obviously realised what a gun was. Suddenly she stopped struggling, looking at the man holding the weapon to Steve's head.

"That's right, birdy, get in the van," the man told her, pointing to the vehicle. Somehow they had managed to get a moment where no-one else was around. Steve was pushed into the van, Arella being squashed in next to him. In a fair fight he could have taken them on but a gun in your back is rarely called a fair fight. He settled for quietly punching in Tony's number on the mobile he had reluctantly been given months before.

"Tony, help, Arella and I have been," he began when one of their captors swiped it out of his hand.

"We'll have none of that!" the man yelled. Steve, judging that since the other two were in the front, reasoned that he could take the lone man on. He kicked out, causing the man to snap back into his seat with a painful crunch. Captain America didn't stop though, he threw himself against the door, hoping to get it open. Then the gunshot came. Arella screamed. Steve stopped when he saw blood trickling down white feathers. The bullet shot through the side of the van, leaving a hole in the metal that matched up with the hole on Arella's wing. Captain America felt another bullet aimed at him click into place.

"Sit down, shut up and no more moving," came the deadly quiet voice.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

… …

"Damn, damn, damn," Tony swore as he flew over Brooklyn, finding no sign of Steve or Arella. Actually he was only looking for Arella since she was a hell of a lot more visible than a blond dude in the centre of Brooklyn. He could see no sign of angel wings in the streets below. Thor, standing dramatically on a rooftop, surveyed the area. They had been looking for nearly two hours and still no glimpse of their friends.

"Tony?" Pepper's worried voice came from inside his helmet. "Bruce is gone. I just went out to fix him something to eat, when I got back he'd left." Tony swore again.

"Okay, I'll double back and see if I can find Hulk. Are you anywhere nearer to finding the Cap's signal?"

"No, I think his phone's been damaged. What else do you want me to do?" He could hear the panic in her voice and remembered that Pepper didn't do well in kidnap situations, they hit too close to home.

"Okay, calm down first. Then call Clint. I don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. involved but we need as many eyes as we can get. Explain everything to him and then see if he can locate Bruce," he told her.

"Right, yeah. I'll tell him."

"Oh, and Pepper? Tell me if the ransom note comes." Tony really wished he hadn't had to say that but he knew that there weren't very many reasons for a kidnapping of two adults. If it was ransom, they had a good chance of getting both Steve and Arella back unharmed. Revenge for one of Captain America's past deeds or something connected with Arella's home world had less certain outcomes. She disconnected without another word.

"Iron Man!" Thor yelled over to him. "This plan is not working!" Tony couldn't help but sigh at the God's obvious statement.

"If you have a better one, please tell me!" he yelled back. Thor didn't answer, his usually unbearably cheerful face darkened. They didn't have a plan to find Steve and Arella. They were the Avengers; no-one could simply kidnap two of them. Somewhere along the line Tony had begun to think of Arella as another Avenger, another oddity. The only way both she and Captain America could have been captured and remain hidden was if they were wounded or dead. If he had given God a moment's thought, he would have prayed for the former.

… …

"Bruce!" Natasha yelled, causing Clint to swerve the car in front of the oncoming convertible. She jumped out and was by the driver's seat in a flash, Hawkeye following once the car was safely on the verge. It was a clear stretch of road but being careful never hurt. Bruce stared at them in surprise.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" he asked. Natasha had her hand ready to lash out if he tried to move the wheel.

"Tony sent us to find you. You have to come back to New York," she told him. Bruce made the mistake of moving. The Black Widow's hand snapped around his wrist. She glared at him defiantly.

"Let me go, Natasha," Bruce said very quietly but made no attempt to dislodge her.

"Not until you explain why you're driving out of NYC whilst everyone else is busy looking for Captain America and some girl." All colour drained out of the scientist's face.

"What?" Came the strangled yelp. Clint stepped in, knowing how unfeeling his partner could be.

"Pepper called us. Captain America and someone called Arella have gone missing. Tony received a distress call about two hours ago. She told us to come and find you before we headed up there to lend a hand. Who's Arella?" he asked.

"She's from somewhere like Asgard, Thor was meant to take her back soon," Bruce said, a confusing tint to his voice that the other two didn't understand.

"So why are you out here?" Natasha pressed.

"I didn't know! That's the first I've heard of it! I just wanted to leave for a bit. It doesn't matter now, we've got to go back and find them." Quietly, Clint pulled Natasha away.

"Right, let's go," the archer said to Bruce. "Leave him alone, something's up and we can't make him angry," he told his partner as they got into their car. Natasha studied Bruce as he turned around and set off back toward New York. There was the cold, calculating aspect in her gaze that meant she was working out every way she could neutralise any threat. Clint didn't like it when a fellow Avenger was deemed a threat; he had been on the receiving end of that gaze before.

"I'm not planning on hurting him," she said eventually. "I'm trying to work out what's made him come out here. Banner likes to run away, for some reason they make me go and find him. They'll know about this soon enough though, you give the weakest excuses ever." By 'they' she meant S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha began to tap away at the car's dashboard computer. Pepper's face appeared on the screen in front of her, pale and anxious.

"Hi Natasha, Clint. Did you find Bruce?" she asked.

"He's right in front of us driving back to New York. I wanted more information on Arella. Description, what she's got to do with us etcetera," said Natasha. Pepper, happy for something useful to do, complied.

"Bruce found her about eight weeks ago near Geneva. She literally fell out of the sky. She looks just like a normal twenty-something except, um, for giant angel wings." They both swallowed that, it no longer seemed in the slightest bit odd. Pepper continued. "There was something about the portal used to get here; residue needed time to settle down so they had to stay for a while. Bruce got angry at something earlier and Hulk showed up in Central Park. I got the distress call from Steve but it was cut off. Tony and Thor just got back, they've had no luck. Um, she's about the same height as Clint, slim, brown hair in curls coming down to about her elbows. Green eyes not exceptionally pretty but sort of got a symmetrical face with nothing unusual. I guess she'd be easy to pass by if not for her wings. They're… Hang on, I've got a photo." Pepper displayed a picture of the girl she had described, complete with large feathery wings, standing with Tony on the roof of Stark Tower.

"Hey, Pepper, did they find Bruce?" Tony asked from somewhere in the background.

"Yes. They're on their way." The line ended, leaving the photo still on the small screen. Suddenly Clint let out a quiet bark of laughter, causing Natasha to jump.

"I know what's gotten into Banner," he said. "Look at what she's wearing." Natasha didn't know how he had managed to pick up the details of the girl's outfit form the brief glance he had spared the screen. Arella was dressed in leather clothes and a familiar kerchief sporting red and white stripes.

"Damn," the Black Widow said.

**... ... **

**Thanks to everyone who favourited/followed this, your reaction has been really brilliant. Merci Cati.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

… …

The first thing Arella noticed was that Steve wasn't there. The second thing was that she couldn't move. Her right wing hurt from the bullet that had torn straight through it. As feeling gradually came back to her limbs she realised why she couldn't move: rope. Thick itchy rope was wound around her legs, binding them tightly together. Her arms were likewise bound in front of her. That was helpful. It took her about a minute to work her hands free and she reached down to release her legs. Then she wrapped the rope back around her to make it appear as if she was still bound. Looking around at the tiny room, she took in the details. One door, a simple lock on the outside and too sturdy for her to break. No window, grate or anything else to break the monotony of the bare concrete walls. A light bulb hung from the ceiling. She sniffed quietly, the slightly damp sent telling her that once more she was underground. For the last few years she had become used to cells, hidden attics and other hiding places. Getting out of bonds was no longer hard, especially since her captors had tied her hands in front of her. This time, however, Tchako wouldn't be there to help her escape. The loud-mouthed captain of the guard was dead, shot with an arrow from the Palace roof. An arrow that should have hit her. Pulling herself back to the present, she realised that she needed to find Steve. That meant that she had to get out of the cell. Still with her limbs loosely bound, she shimmied to the door. Tchako had been the one who picked the locks and she was stuck for an idea. Suddenly her wing hit the floor and she stifled a scream. It hurt. Luckily someone had thought to put a bandage on it so she wasn't in danger of bleeding to death. Flying was most probably out of the question though. From the slight discomfort in her stomach she guessed that she had missed several meals, but without any source of natural light she had no way of knowing the time or how long she'd been in the cell. She tried the door in the vain hope of it being unlocked. It wasn't so she nestled down in the corner as comfortably as she could and waited. She had nothing else to do so her mind wandered back to another time, in another cell, waiting for someone to come and find her.

_It was cold, very cold. Arella didn't even bother to keep her teeth from chattering. It was clean, the cell having not recently been used. In fact very few of the prison cells were ever used during her father's reign. She wasn't hurt, thankfully, not on the outside at least. She pulled her knees up to her chin, folding her wings protectively around her. Her brothers were dead. Her big brothers, the ones who would always look out for her, were dead. They would no longer pick her up when she fell down the steps in front of the palace, no longer keep the scheming men of the court at a safe distance and no longer make sure that no wild animals interrupted her forest walks. Tears began to fall down her face. She was ten years old._

"_Come on little princess, let's get you out of here," a rough voice said from the door. Tchako stood in the doorway, a grim smile on his face. Arella threw herself at him, breaking down into silent sobs. He picked up the little girl, holding her tight. "I've got you, little princess. Your Lady Mother's waiting with his Majesty your brother." Simply he had told her everything she needed to know. Her father was dead but her mother lived._

"_Who?" she asked quietly. Tchako sighed as he strode along the dungeon corridor towards the exit._

"_Jeie," he answered, his voice quiet with hatred and rage. She hugged him tighter._

"_Where are we going?"_

"_To the coast, to your Mother's family, to safety."_

This time he wouldn't come to take her to safety. This time Arella couldn't even count on Captain America. When the door opened she was ready. The man didn't even have time to reach for his gun before he was flattened against the opposite wall. She took it out of his holster and knocked him squarely on the temple. He could survive, possibly. The cell led directly onto a small courtyard, surrounded on two sides by a high concrete building and on the others a wire fence. Beyond that was a vast expanse of grass reaching to mountains in the distance. With a healed wing she could make it to the mountains in a few hours, unless they were taller than she estimated and thus further away. Keeping to the shadows around the walls she was glad that the guard had been bringing her the evening meal and it was already nearly dark. Still, she had to find Steve. Only one other door led onto the courtyard so she tried it. Voices came from up the corridor, speaking in English too rapid for her to understand. With the gun still in her hands she looked up. The roof was a good two storeys up, maybe three but here were no windows to make sure. Ignoring the burning pain Arella opened her wings. Half flying half climbing the wall she bit her lip and tasted blood as she tried to scale the building. Her left wing pushed the unyielding air down. It shouldn't be this hard, she thought, air was her element, her home. Every wing-beat hurt but she caught hold of the roof ledge. Flat roofs were luckily in fashion. She would be safer up there, with no door leading downstairs. She was still no closer to finding Steve though. The view of the compound was good. It consisted of two buildings against each other with the small square of dirt in the corner where they met. A larger space held similar trucks to the one she had been shot in as well as cars like some Tony owned. Big black ones. The fence ran all the way around the compound with only one gate. A door opened from the larger building she was standing on. Out came a group of men, all armed. Two carried body between them. Blond hair lay on the bloodied head making Arella gasp. She held up her gun and loosened a round of fire at the men. Four went down immediately, the other six fired back. She ducked down, felling the bullets fly high above her. Springing up she fired her remaining two bullets.

"Arella! Get Tony!" Steve yelled, obviously woken by the gunfire. She wasn't sure how to do that. They bustled Steve into a truck after knocking him unconscious first. Orders were shouted. Arella looked down for a moment, uttering the only words Tony had taught her.

"Tony. Tony. New York," she muttered, trying to remember any maps. Wherever she was, New York was on the east coast. She gave it a run up and was over the fence, landing heavily after suing her wings as a parachute. She ran into the darkness, away from the sunset and the compound. Away from Steve.

"Tony. New York. Stark Tower. Bruce. Pepper." She formed a quiet mantra as she ran. Behind her the sounds of dogs and men chasing sent chills down her spine. She ran across the countryside of Pennsylvania towards the State border.

… …

**I hope that the map was right and there are actually mountains/big hills in Pennsylvania.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

… …

Pepper took one look at the screen and had to pinch herself. There was a satellite image of a building in the middle of nowhere. Parked outside was a grey van with the same number plate as the CCTV picture JARVIS had managed to get of Steve and Arella seconds before his call had come in. Once she had checked that she wasn't hallucinating, she called Tony.

"I've found them!" she shrieked, grinning broadly. Tony and Thor rushed in, clamouring for details. She showed them the screen.

"Pepper, you're brilliant!" Tony yelled, surprising them both by kissing her on the forehead. "Pennsylvania, here we come!" Seconds later he had dragged an excited but confused Thor to the roof and taken off, the trail from his suit disappearing into the sky. Pepper was left once again to orchestrate the effort. She called Clint and Natasha.

"We've found them! They're near you; I'm sending you the coordinates. It's the same van outside the building that picked them up in Brooklyn. Of course we're guessing that they didn't dump it or anything." Clint shot his partner a quick glance as he raced down the highway. Pepper was rambling.

"Pepper, can you tell Bruce? He's in front of us," Natasha said, managing to calm her down slightly.

"Right, yeah, Bruce. Okay." Pepper disconnected, leaving the two in silence again. Silence was golden in their world; silence meant they were in control. Pepper didn't do silence.

… …

Steve whished that he could stay in the dark, quiet place he had sunk into when the sharp pain in his arm had spread cold over his body. The light hurt his eyes; it was too bright to be awake. Whoever was in charge of the coldness in his arm had other ideas.

"Good morning, Captain," a nasal voice came, too loud for his ears. Steve decided that waking up from anaesthetic sucked. Then he remembered Arella. He forced his eyes open to look for her. Instead a large nosed woman with an aggressive blond bun glared at him.

"Ere's rlla?" he mumbled, finding that his mouth wouldn't work. The woman sneered at him.

"The great Captain America, babbling like a baby," she said tauntingly. He tugged at the line going into his arm, trying to take in the room. She pushed him back down roughly, laughing at him.

"No Captain. You're staying here." The door opened, cutting off the hate-filled ramble that was on the tip of her tongue. She snapped to attention, allowing the newcomer to get a look at the bed. A man's face, podgy and sweating, came into Steve's field of vision.

"Hello, Captain. I'm glad to see you doing so well. I do hope you like your new surroundings," the man said. He seemed similar to the scraping doormen or clerks that were spawned by important people and their entourages. Steve could see him as a hotel manager eager to please his guests. Still, it didn't stop him struggling. The woman pumped more sedatives into his arm.

"Now, Captain, we're just going to do some tests. I think you'll agree to our reasons. Surely everyone deserves your gift." Steve felt the tendrils of artificial sleep tug at his mind. He fell back into the darkness.

… …

"Okay, we'll split up. Bruce, circle round to the north and try to find another entrance. We'll take the main gate," Clint told his teammates. Bruce nodded and the archer couldn't help but think that he looked ready to let Hulk smash a new entrance if one didn't present itself. He and Natasha crept through the grass towards the building on the horizon. He hoped that Hulk would be quiet enough for them to get close before the alarm was raised. The two assassins reached the gate as a roar came from the north. They were over the fence before the inhabitants had woken up. They had left the attack until nightfall, allowing time for Iron Man and Thor to catch up slightly. Within seconds Natasha had opened the locked door into what they found was the guards' quarters. They were empty. As was the rest of the building as they made a quick search of the whole compound.

"Something's wrong," Clint said quietly.

"Where's Hulk?" Natasha's voice turned both of their blood streams to ice.

… …

Hulk ran around the building as Hawkeye had told him to. He couldn't smell humans in the building. Then he caught a familiar sent. Arella. It led east. Hulk left the assassins in the building and followed the sent.

"Hulk find you, Arella! Hulk smash if you hurt!" He kept running, the smell of dogs hitting his nostrils.

Arella collapsed, her whole body shaking from a mixture of pain, exhaustion and fear. She could still hear the dogs behind her but her legs wouldn't move. She curled up, her wounded wing hanging uselessly at her side, and began to cry. She had never been good at running, never been quite fast enough to get away on her own. She lay there, waiting for them to come and find her because she was too weak to save herself. A loud roar sent her whimpering with renewed terror. What new monster of this world had come to track her down?

Hulk caught up with the men. He roared, sending them flying. Dogs yelped in pain as he hurled them against their owners. After a few minutes there were none left alive. He kept running.

Arella felt the ground shake underneath her as the beast came thundering up to her. She curled up as small as she could, tears drying on her cheeks only to be replaced immediately. She could smell the monster's breath on her face.

"Arella?" Hulk asked softly. As softly as he could. Slowly she unfurled her head from the ball she had curled up into. She still looked terrified.

"What?" she squeaked. Hulk stooped down so that he was closer to her, making her back away quickly.

"Hulk come save you. Puny Banner come too."

"Banner? Bruce? Bruce Hulk? Hulk friend?" she asked, straightening her limbs as she grew more confident.

"Hulk friend. Hulk take you to Iron Man's Tower." Without waiting for an answer Hulk lifted her up set off towards New York. After a first terrified scream, Arella realised that there was nothing she could do and quietened down. Hulk smelt familiar, like the room she had woken up in where she had met Bruce. If big green things were normal on Earth, at least she wouldn't be too surprised when she met another one.

… …

"Clint, there are tracks leading back down the road. If we can follow them we may find the Captain and that Angel girl," Natasha called. Clint was busy trying to see Hulk through the darkness.

"We can't leave Bruce out here!" She rolled her eyes at him.

"He'll be fine. It's that girl who's in the most danger. She probably has no training whatsoever. Come on!" With a sigh Hawkeye left off his search for Bruce.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

… …

Thor circled high above the road, gazing down. In the shadows he could see Hawkeye and Black Widow driving slowly, following the tyre tracks. Iron Man was already speeding along, trying to catch up with the vehicle. They had found the remains of several trucks along with bodies, evidence of Hulk stopping an attempt to flee by the compound's personnel. There had been no sign of him or the two they were looking for. Finding Hulk would have to wait.

Thor felt guilty about leaving Arella in Midgard for so long but it had been too easy to persuade himself that the longer they left the route to Asgard unused, the safer things would be. Jane had helped persuade him as well. If only he had gone sooner, Arella would be safe. They may even have launched a war of revenge against Jeie for his crimes against Arella and her family. Thor couldn't understand why she had begged him not to set off at once. Surely she wanted her throne back? Her inheritance? He was saddened to learn that her brothers were dead, he had been great friends with them and the one they fought with, Tchako had been a fierce warrior. Arella had once been a fighter too; she had trained with him and Loki as a little girl. Now she had grown into one of the thinkers, one who fought wars with words and peace treaties. He remembered how strange her world had been, in some ways similar to Midgard. Guns, like those Black Widow used, had been Arella's eldest brother's weapon of choice. Thor promised himself that he would drink to their honour and have a saga written for them when he got home.

"Okay, I've got them!" Natasha heard Iron Man's voice coming through the car's dashboard panel. She and Clint were back inside in a flash, having been inspecting the tracks on the grass. They followed the light above them that was Tony Stark back onto the asphalt road. Thor got the message too and landed on the roof.

"Thor! Get off!" Clint yelled, slightly protective of his jeep.

"I wish to hear what Iron Man says!" the god of thunder replied. Clint gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the sound of Thor's hammer being none too gently rested on his roof.

It took them an hour of trailing and various tactics to keep Thor from racing off to blow the truck in front of them up before they reached a large county hospital just outside two towns. Clint pulled in next to the truck they had been following and the two assassins got out, Thor had already joined Tony up in the sky. Natasha spent a minute going through the van before they entered the building causally. The Black Widow handed her partner a scrunched up cloth with a water bottle.

"Hold that on your head and look dazed," she told him. Clint didn't even bother asking why. A passing medical student suddenly noticed he was missing his drink.

"How can I help you?" the blonde receptionist asked in a bored tone. Natasha produced expertly faked health insurance cards and handed Clint's over.

"We just wondered if there was anyone free to look him over, he banged his head pretty hard." Clint supplied a slight wince and kept the bottle clamped to his head.

"Sure thing, take a seat in the waiting room. First door on the left," the receptionist pointed down the hallway. Smiling, Natasha lad the way straight past the waiting room door and to the lifts.

"Basement. It's always the basement," Clint said as the door shut behind them. Natasha was busy with the lift controls.

"I know that. There we go." She had picked the lock on the button that required a key. Down went the lift. The Black Widow loosened her gun and Clint, his quiver back in the car, readied his knives.

The corridor was deserted, full of medical equipment and the smell of sanitizer. The two assassins crept along, trying doors. Finally they found one that wasn't storage. You didn't lock storage as well as you did secret prison cells. It took Natasha mere seconds to coax the door open. A very surprised woman in a doctor's coat looked up from where she was taking a large blood sample from the man lying on the bed. Clint charged her, knocking her away from the bed. Natasha was across in a flash to distangle the various wires and tubes from Steve.

"Glad to see you two," he said brightly as if he hadn't been strapped down with some impressive cuffs only a moment beforehand. Clint had managed to get the woman in a headlock with his knife at her throat.

"Questions?" he asked the other two. Steve shook his head.

"I know enough, just do it and let's find Arella," the Super-Soldier answered without any emotion. Killing people was what they were all trained to do. Clint slit her throat, one last snarl coming from her lips. Looking around, Natasha found Steve's clothes and turned to let him change out of the scrubs he had woken up in.

"Any ideas, Tony?" she asked into her communicator.

"She wasn't brought here with me; she managed to escape back wherever we were before. I don't know how far she could have gotten though; her wing was in a pretty bad shape," Steve told them.

"Looks like Hulk went after her then," Tony said quietly. They all stared at Natasha's arm where his voice was emanating from.

"You three go back to New York, Thor and I will find them." Steve did not look thrilled at the prospect.

… …

Tony landed quietly in the field, taking care to approach the pair slowly. Arella had seen him and put her finger to her lips. He knelt down beside her and the unconscious Bruce.

"Are you okay?" he whispered. She cast her wing a glance and shrugged.

"Bruce, Hulk, explain Tony." Her tone was very similar to one Pepper sometimes used when he had done something to annoy her.

"Wait, not without JARVIS translating. I don't think you'd be able to grasp all of it, okay? Let's get back to New York. Thor!" The god of thunder appeared out of nowhere apparently. "Help Arella, I've got Bruce." Thor turned to his charge.

"_Are you grievously hurt?"_

"_It has stopped bleeding."_

"_Can you fly?"_

"_No."_

"_Then I shall carry you and we will return to Asgard!"_

"_How about New York first?"_

"_If we must. Captain America is found." _Arella breathed a sigh of relief and clung onto Thor as he raised Mjolnir and lifted off.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

… …

Tony came up the stairs, whistling the most annoying tune he could think of. Unfortunately there was no one around to be annoyed. The girls had disappeared into Arella's room immediately, chattering away. Natasha had seemed to take on an almost normal demeanour when around the other two. Clint was up in some cranny or somewhere, Steve in the gym punching things and Tony had a sinking feeling that he had to find Bruce fast. His roof was apparently a good place to sit and brood. He found the scientist looking blankly at the pages of a book, his eyes not moving down the page. Tony simply watched him form the door for a moment.

"Good book?"

"Go away, Stark." Came the answer. Tony grinned and ignored him. Instead he sat down on the chair opposite him.

"Someone should cast you in Romeo and Juliet," he said. "You're as angsty as a badly written teenager." Bruce was very tempted to throw the book at him.

"Go away."

"No."

"Please?"

"Nope."

"Um, guys?" Clint appeared out of nowhere making them both jump. "Thor's getting ready to go." The archer frowned slightly at the black look on Bruce's face but comprehending soon came.

"Come on, we gotta say goodbye," Tony said as he pulled his friend up. As unwilling as he was, Bruce couldn't quite match Tony in the tug-of-war that followed.

Thor was standing in the middle of the lounge, a small sack at his feet. His face looked sad but determined as he spotted his friends.

"We are leaving, my friends. Arella will be up shortly. She wanted to say goodbye to the Captain." Bruce hovered in the corner looking miserable. Pepper and Natasha exited the lift, the former holding Arella's small bag of newly acquired belonging.

"Cheer up, it's not like she's dead or anything," Natasha muttered. Everyone except Clint sent her a glare. Her partner shook his head, warning her not to carry on. They waited in silence, no one really knowing what to say.

… …

"Steve?" Arella asked quietly. She didn't go all the way through the door, the sounds of things being hit kept her at bay. Steve stopped pummelling the punching bag and smiled at her.

"Hey, it's okay, you can come on in." He wiped his face with a towel, moving round the swinging bag towards her. She fidgeted slightly, unsure of how to say what she had come to tell him. She had already memorized the translation JARVIS had given her, now all she had to do was say it.

"Wat hapnd on se roof. Im sorry. I don't fell," she stammered. Steve held up a hand, a comforting smile on his face.

"It's okay. I get it." She let out the breath she had been holding. "I still don't want you to go." Steve shrugged. "Not that there's much I can do to make you stay."

"You want me to stay? After now?" Her broken English was still endearing to him.

"Of course." Arella thought about it for a split second.

"I speak Thor. If Tony want me to stay here," she told him. With a happier face than he ought to have had, Steve led the way to the lift and up to where the others were waiting.

"Arella! Are you ready?" Thor asked loudly the moment they arrived. She skipped over to him.

"_I wish to stay in Midgard. I have more friends here than in Asgard. It is no disrespect to you, or your father. I like it here," _she told him quietly. Thor sighed.

"_As do I. Yet I will leave you here then, for you have no duty to attend to. Asgard is a cold place for an outsider, even an old friend."_

"_Do not attempt to do war upon Jeie; my people have had too much war for such a hollow crown."_ Thor touched his heart as a sign of an oath taken. He then turned to the others.

"It seems that Midgard is too fine a place to bear leaving." Tony let out a loud sigh, cutting the god off.

"Yes, you can," he said with mock resignation. "On the condition that you not only learn English, but that you keep Pepper's girly dress and shoes stuff away from me." Arella, not really understanding anything besides the word yes, hugged him. After a moment of shock because no one hugs Tony Stark, he grinned and hugged her back. "Sometimes I feel like a hotel manager or something except the guests keep coming and no one seems to leave." Taking the hint Thor began to say goodbye to his friends. Finally the God of Thunder left Stark Tower. He even managed to leave it intact.

… …

"Oh cheer up. She's still here isn't she?" Tony was more than a little bit fed up with Bruce's moping around. They were working on the suit, installing some basic life support in case Tony got injured.

"I'm fine." Tony stood up, his hands on his hips and a determined scowl on his face.

"This is more than a little bit of you not wanting a cute girl to leave, isn't it? Oh stop being pathetic and own up. You're in love with her, aren't you?" Bruce didn't meet his eye until he realised that Tony wasn't going to back down.

"Yes, I am. Happy? Can we leave it now?" he snapped, turning his back on Tony

"No. Tell her, I don't think she and the Cap are actually a thing, you know."

"Of course they're a thing, Tony. Why else would they have been kissing on the roof?" Tony was surprised at that; he didn't think that Bruce had actually seen them doing anything. He had assumed that they had just been sitting a bit too close and Bruce had taken it the wrong way. His friend sighed, going back to his work.

"You're buggered," he told Bruce simply. The scientist glared at him flatly.

"N.S. Sherlock."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

… …

Natasha sometimes whished that she did not have a talent for being unheard. It meant that she usually ended up learning things that she didn't need or want to know. Of course, she could just pretend that she hadn't heard Bruce telling Tony about his feelings for Arella, but then that would be unfair on the brunette girl. Natasha liked Arella; she had a slightly cynical and sarcastic sense of humour that balanced out her childish tendencies. Plus the fact that she was a mean shot with a gun, as they had found out in Tony's small indoor firing range. Arella was no match for Clint but she could fire a small bow he had found. At first Natasha had resented Arella's weakness, the assassin feeling that she was too dependent on the others coming to her rescue but all it had taken was a few broken sentences and the Russian found her as endearing as Pepper. Especially since she didn't have a lot of ways to express the girlish and more normal side of the Black Widow. So, in the time it took her to reach Pepper's office, Natasha had made up her mind to tell them both what she had overheard.

"Hi, spider," Arella said, looking up from the long list of words she was trying to memorize.

"Hi, angel," answered Natasha as she sat down on the couch. Pepper was busy typing on her computer, muttering quietly to herself. "I've got some news." Arella put away her tablet, focusing on catching every word. Pepper didn't look up but nodded anyway to show that she was listening.

"Bruce is in love with you. That's why he's been miserable and why he ran off." They stared at her; even Pepper looked up from her screen. "He thinks you're with Steve," Natasha finished. Arella took a moment to work out how to answer.

"Im not wis Steve," she said finally. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion as she looked at Natasha. "Listen not nice. Maybe Bruce not want me know." The red-head shrugged.

"Well, you do now," the assassin answered simply.

"Poor Bruce. What are you going to do?" Pepper asked, coming to sit next to Natasha. This was definitely more interesting that what she had previously been doing. Sighing, Arella put her head in her hands dramatically.

"Tony say he explain Bruce Hulk." Pepper shot Natasha a worried glance.

"You met Hulk?" Both the angel and the assassin nodded. Pepper very nearly swore. "Where are they, Natasha?"

"In the lab." Arella got up.

"Hulk friend, good guy," she told them. Pepper winced.

"No. Hulk is not your friend. I don't know why he left you alive," Natasha said bitterly, remembering the green monster's attempts to kill her on board the hellicarrier not that long ago. Arella shrugged and left.

"We don't know if she managed to make it to where Tony found her on her own and Hulk just happened to pass out as he reached her or if they actually met each other," the red-head told her friend. "Either way, if she gets the wrong end of the stick she's in danger." Pepper sighed.

"She's with the Avengers now; danger is what you guys do for a day-job." Natasha laughed dryly.

… …

She had been waiting for Tony to explain, as he had promised, about Hulk. She had decided that big green things were not common on Earth and Natasha didn't like Hulk. So she went down to the lab, knocking on the glass door. Bruce and Tony looked up from the desk they were both leaning over. The billionaire grinned and waved her in.

"Arella, come and see what you think of this!" he babbled, unaware that she couldn't keep up with him. The drawings on the screen were of Iron Man's suit.

"Iron Man," she said. Tony rolled his eyes in exasperation at her slowness.

"Yes, Iron Man. Now, I was thinking about getting you something to protect your wings since they seem to get hurt a lot. Here." He flicked up another design: a pair of metal wings that would fit perfectly over her own, the feathers sliding over each other to help her move. She nodded.

"Like home," Arella told him, smiling as she turned the projection around. "Show you?" Tony handed her a pen and she began to draw out a picture of what started as simply the armour they used back home. By the time she had finished, Arella realised that she had drawn Tchako perfectly, even filled in his face.

"That's all well and good, but you've drawn a guy. Do you know what girls wear?" Tony asked impatiently. She moved her hand to delete the picture, not quite sure why she was embarrassed about it. She hadn't meant to draw Tchako; it had just ended up as him, which was odd because she had drawn him in full ceremonial armour instead of his usual leather padding and helm. Bruce's hand on her wrist stopped her from hitting the trashcan.

"Can you save it?" he asked Tony quietly. His friend shrugged.

"JARVIS, create a new personal file for Arella and save this in it." The drawing disappeared with a bleep. "Okay, now the girl's version." Arella drew out Fran, the captain who had protected her during the years they had lived in hiding. Large wing casings, a back guard, no helm, leg bracers and a breastplate. Tony took the pen and began to make alterations.

"We'll add a helmet because not having one is stupid unless you're Clint or Natasha, and somewhere to put a handgun. What's your weapon of choice?" Again Arella drew out something of her past, this time her own sword. It was beautiful, one of the few things she had managed to take with her when she left the palace aged ten. Her father had given it to her for her ninth birthday; it had once belonged to his mother and was tradition to be passed down. The blade was long, too long for a nine year old to wield but as she had grown Tchako had taught her. The hilt was deep blue inlaid with gold in the form of a dragon.

"My sword," she told them when she had finished. "My weapon." Tony was impressed.

"What metal is it?" JARVIS was required to translate.

"Titanium." Tony grinned.

"Well, let's see if we can play around with the alloys just a bit. I won't change anything else. What do you think, Bruce?" Bruce had kept quiet behind them, his face pensive.

"I hope you won't ever need to suit up for a battle like that," he murmured. Arella began to tell JARVIS something for him to translate.

"Not counting skirmishes, I was in two land battles. The first I enlisted as a common soldier when a neighbouring King fought against Jeie." She had laughed with Tchako about the irony of her fighting for her father's murder's throne. Unlike her mother, he and Fran hadn't objected to her going at all. They had always had a plan to get her brother's inheritance back.

"The second, my mother raised an army herself and fought for my brother's crown. I acted as a general; she gave me my own command. I can fight, Bruce, I have done before." They stared at her in amazement. She certainly didn't look like a war veteran, nor did she act like one. What they hadn't seen was the reason Natasha and Clint now respected her. They hadn't seen her in the gym or on the firing range. Arella could cope with full scale battles, at least the type she was used to. It was being captured that brought back the more painful memories.

"Then we had better get you suited up," Tony said. "Welcome to the Avengers. All you need is a name." Arella grinned and picked up the pen again. She brought Tony's plans for her helm up and drew a simple circle on the top.

"Angel."

… …

**She'll have the talk with Bruce in the next chapter but the idea of armour just popped into my head.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

… …

"Okay, let's see how well this works!" Bruce smiled from his corner at Tony's enthusiasm. He had a sense that Arella had come down to the workshop for something else but the genius had managed to sweep her up in his ideas. The suit was coming along just fine, with only a few shouting matches which Arella, surprisingly, had won by yelling at Tony in her own language until he gave in. Tony Stark never gave in. Still, Arella had refused to have her face covered entirely with a mask so the helmet ended up being more like a weird crown which she kept on fighting against. Eventually they compromised and Arella's head was covered with a helm that sat snugly over her skull but didn't infringe on her forehead or ears. The next fight was about the guns. Tony wanted her to have integrated missiles in her arms but Arella wanted nothing more than tight fabric sleeves and maybe some wrist protectors. Steve, having heard the shouting, came and told them that she should just have two guns in holsters either side or her waist and thick protectors on her lower arms. Now the whole thing was almost finished, about forty-eight hours after they had begun work. The final designs, as well as several prototypes, lay around the workshop. However, before they began to actually make the suit, Tony turned to Bruce.

"Out. It's a surprise." He pointed to the door. After a fair bit of protesting and a hefty shove from Tony, Bruce was locked out. He went to find a book.

… …

Pepper flicked the news on absently, more interested in her magazine. She sat down in the large plush chair and flicked through the pages about celebrities until she got to an article she actually wanted to read.

"Parts of Pennsylvania are under attack from an unknown group of armed fighters." Pepper looked up, her magazine forgotten. "The Army has moved in but still towns and villages are being damaged by this unidentified force." She was about to call Tony when her phone began to ring.

"Pepper, get everyone in the lounge," Natasha's voice said calmly. "Fury wants to talk to them." Five minutes later and the Avengers plus Pepper and Arella were being debriefed by Fury. Arella was kept out of sight at the back of the room.

"They're not normal people, we have reason to believe that they're some sort of super-soldier, similar to you, Captain." A few things fell into place with a very loud clang in the minds of the two geniuses in the room.

"They must have," Bruce began.

"The hospital," Tony murmured. Fury looked at them, one eyebrow raised.

"We heard about that little incident." Natasha and Clint received a few dark looks. "If that's the case then we need the Avengers. Pennsylvania, they're not hard to find. Just look for the smoke." Steve, Clint and Natasha very nearly snapped to attention before going to get changed. "Going to help, Stark? Banner?" Bruce and Tony shared a look.

"JARVIS, get my suit ready." Bruce sighed as Fury signed out.

"Where going?" Arella asked quietly, still hidden in the corner.

"Off to save the world," Tony replied from where he was stepping into his suit. He grinned at her before pulling down his faceguard. "Coming, Bruce?"

"Yeah," he said and went to find the others as they got into the jet. He missed the wink Tony gave Arella.

"Be safe!" she called after him, not listening to JARVIS' translation of the situation. Pepper, however, had seen the look passed between her boyfriend and the winged girl.

"Whatever you're planning, Tony, don't," she warned him.

"It'll be fine! You'll see. Laters." Pepper may love him but she certainly didn't trust him one hundred per cent of the time. Arella didn't help matters with her barely concealed grin. Pepper decided that babysitting was going to be harder than she had planned.

… …

"Woah, that's a lot of super-soldiers! Looks like you're not a weirdo anymore, Cap!" Iron Man called. Captain America glared at him from the open door of the jet. The three that obeyed orders had been told to enter the fray from above and work out in a spiral so that the whole town was cleared. They would be backed up by the army which was coming in from the north. Clint touched the jet down on top of the school. Guns blazing the Black Widow and Captain America entered the fight. Iron Man swept his arm over the street, wiping out several of the enemy soldiers. They were heavily armed, able to shoot back with enough power to send him flying for cover, and were wearing armour that turned them into mini tanks.

"Great, Captain America Iron man hybrid things!" he yelled. "That makes me want to kill you twice! Once for trying to be like me and again because you're little versions of Steve!" Captain America threw a brick in his direction, not aiming at Iron Man but enough to show that he had heard.

… …

Pepper was at her wit's end trying to keep Arella in the same room as her. First of all she didn't like listening in on the Avengers' radios because she couldn't stand hearing Tony's life getting risked. Secondly, Arella wanted to go down to the workshop despite Pepper telling her that she couldn't. Arella had grown up as a princess and was very good at getting her own way but Pepper had worked for and lived with Tony for long enough to know when not to give in.

"Where are you going?" she asked as the winged girl got up from the sofa they had been watching Friends on.

"Bathroom, not your business," Arella answered. Pepper sighed and let it go, satisfied that whatever Tony had planned was either going to happen later, when they were back, or had been forgotten. When Arella didn't reappear, she knew that it was not the case. Fifteen minutes and she went to knock on the bathroom door.

"Hey, Arella? Are you in there?" Of course she wasn't. Pepper ran down to the workshop only to find it empty. "JARVIS, where's Arella?"

"Arella is currently three hundred feet above the Bronx." Pepper very nearly swore.

… …

**Sorry but this is the last update (unless I find time again today) because of a trip to a place with no laptop or probably internet. I appreciate everyone who has read this so far and I promise that I will finish it as soon as I get back. Ten days, guys, can you live with that? Also time has passed since Arella got shot and her wing's all better, I should probably have clarified that.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

… …

"Arella! What are you doing?" Pepper hissed into her helmet. Arella regretted allowing Tony to install a communicator in the headpiece.

"Go help. Tony idea."

"Get back here!"

"No. Go back to TV, Pepper. We be fine," she said, smiling as she tried to follow the directions Tony had given her. It was lucky that she remembered things from when Thor had brought her back to New York several weeks ago. The armour was working fine, the wings took a bit of getting used to again but they let her fly almost normally. Her sword was swinging at her hip, her two guns on a different belt alongside it. The only slight problem was a chaffing at her collar bone by the neck brace attached to the scale-like armour on her back. She would get Tony to sort it out.

"Arella, come back, please?"

"No."

"They don't need help."

"I go. Sorry, Pepper." Finally she worked out how to cut the line off. Some part of her felt bad for having left Pepper alone to worry. Yet surely if all of them were out, it wouldn't make a difference if she had one more person to be anxious about? Arella occupied herself with this logic until she could see black smoke rising in the distance.

"Are you coming?" Tony's voice snapped in her ear. "We may actually need you." She could hear the sound of guns through the link.

"Yes. Right here." A few minutes later she was directly above the battle, approaching from the north. Below she could see the army taking up defensive positions but not really making progress into the town. Tony's jet was in the centre of the main square, a red blur she assumed was Natasha next to it. It was new, having a bird's eye view of a battle since Arella usually fought in the air where getting above the enemy was impossible and pointless. Taking out her guns she fired at the metal-men approaching Natasha. Her shot bounced off the pavement and into the unprotected face of one. For a split second the Black Widow looked up and nodded. Arella shot at the attackers again but getting through their armour was tough from a distance. Even Clint, who she had spotted on the roof of a multi-storey car park, wasn't having as many clean hits as normal. She lowered herself to the ground, not that gracefully due to a direct hit to her wing. Armour had its uses, she decided. The metal-man nearest to her turned to fire. With a flick of her arm he had several inches of blade through the joint in his armour around his collar. She pulled her sword free, flattening herself against the concrete wall of a block of flats to avoid another shot. With her back against the wall, she shot straight through the visor of another metal-man. One came at her, attempting to knock her over. She was in the air before he reached her, kicking herself off the wall. Landing across the street she was forced back by a shot to her shoulder that knocked the air out of her. Two more metal-men came at her, one raising his gun to aim at her head. He fell down before he could shoot, courtesy of Hawkeye on the roof above her. They didn't stop to exchange words; Arella simply shot the next metal-man in the groin. The impact left his doubled over and gave her enough time to slice through his visor. With a gun in one hand and her sword in the other, she stood her ground just ahead of the army who were advancing slowly.

"Arella, get out of there! The army's going to shoot you; they don't know you're on their side!" Iron Man yelled through the link. She didn't need to be told twice and was at Clint's level pretty quickly. Diving down behind him out of the way of the metal-men's fire she paused to catch her breath.

"Nice suit," Clint said.

"Nice shot," she called back. "Where need me, Tony?" She could see him a few streets over.

"Go and give Natasha a hand, in the main square." She took off towards the jet. The metal-men shot at her, knocking her off balance and sending her straight towards a concrete wall. At the last second Arella tilted her wings and half-ran half-flew down the side of the building. She was next to Natasha is a moment, landing on the shoulders of a very surprised and then very dead metal-man. The Russian threw her one of the enemy's guns. Arella swung her arm to hit it volley-ball style and cracked the helmet of another metal-man.

"Where's the army? They should be here by now!" Natasha yelled.

"Use guns, no good!" Arella told her. The Black Widow leapt backwards, kicking two of her attackers in her chest. The two girls fought side by side, not with their backs to each other because they both needed space for their fighting styles but close enough to keep the metal-men from fully entering the square from the west. Arella glanced over her shoulder to see Thor smashing a helmet in on his way to the north entrance.

"I'm going to fly over and flush them all towards you, get ready," Tony said. "Is Bruce still there?"

"Negative. We'll all pull back into the square," Captain America ordered, joining Thor. Hawkeye they assumed had heard and was up on a perch somewhere.

"Bruce?" Arella asked, backing towards the jet to catch her breath. Natasha shrugged.

"He'll be fine. Duck!" She threw a hand grenade at the quartet or metal-men about to crowd Arella. In return the winged girl blew the head off another next to Natasha at point blank range.

"The army are deploying tanks. They're blowing up the whole street," Hawkeye told them in a detached, calm voice. A series of explosions followed his warning. Natasha stepped back for a second, letting Arella cover her as she rested.

"How many more?" the Captain asked, slightly out of breath. Iron Man arrived, bringing several dozen with him.

"No rest yet, Cap. You're not tired, are you?" The link went suspiciously dead for a moment. Natasha rolled her eyes and fired at a nearby metal-man.

… …

Arella span around, catching the armoured fist before it hit her shoulder. Her wing slammed the man into the wall, producing a satisfying crunch. He didn't get up.

"All clear this end, plus I found Bruce. I think he did more damage than the rest of us put together. Did you know that there was a whole legion of these guys coming in from the east? Keyword there being was. There's not many left now. Arella, can you come over and give me a hand? We'll catch you guys up later," Tony told them all. Around them lay the smouldering remains of the metal-men and several buildings. The army had managed to finally reach the square, having blasted the street they came down to shreds. Thor and Captain America were doing sweeps searches whilst Natasha and Clint did rounds checking that the dead were actually dead. It was a grim job that fell to those with the stronger stomachs.

As she touched down amongst the ruins of a doctor's surgery Arella looked around for Tony and Bruce. The sight of a metal suit made her raise her gun.

"It's me, come over here," Tony said, waving a hand at her from where he was crouching beside Bruce. She put the weapon away and walked over.

"Okay, I might as well explain now. Hulk is Bruce, he goes like that when he's angry or in danger. You've got to be careful because Hulk will kill you, he can't stop it. Understand? If Bruce is upset, leave him alone and get out of the way. Never, never get him angry. I know you saw Hulk before but he's not a friend. He's dangerous. Do you get that?" Tony was on his feet now, gripping Arella's shoulders to try and make it clear. He knew that Hulk had done something strange and not hurt her. That scared him, knowing that Arella may have gotten the wrong idea of Hulk.

"I understand. Bruce okay?" He let go of her, turning back to his friend.

"Yeah, he's fine. Let's get him back to New York. Not bad, for a mark one. I did a good job with your armour." She rolled her eyes; Tony would never actually compliment her own skill and strength, just his handiwork.

… …

**I came back. Please excuse the gap. Thanks to so many of you who favourited!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

… …

"Bruce?" Slowly he opened his eyes to see a large white blob hovering above him. After a few seconds the blob solidified into Arella's face.

"Hey," he said weakly. He looked around to find that he was in his bed in Stark Tower and for some reason Arella was sitting on it. Then he noticed an ugly bruise going up her left arm.

"How'd that happen?" he asked, pointing at it. She shrugged.

"Metal-man threw me into wall." Bruce stared at her for a moment.

"What? You were there? How? I'm going to kill Tony," he growled and tried to get up. Arella's face went slightly pale and she backed away. "Wait, what's wrong? What's he told you?"

"Bruce be angry bad," she stammered back. "Tony say very bad." Bruce really was going to kill Stark this time. He very nearly told her that he wasn't going to hurt her. Then he stopped. Surely it was better if she was scared of him; surely she'd be less likely to get hurt.

"Come bring food." She pointed to the tray by the bedside. "Go now." With that she scampered out of the door. Bruce flopped back down on his bed and closed his eyes. He felt defeated, not angry, just defeated. He had been fooling himself, thinking that maybe he and Arella could be something. He couldn't ever let it happen. She would be in too much danger. She didn't deserve someone like him. A wreck, a monster. She should be with Steve, a hero with a good heart and no maniac green beast waiting to burst through and kill her. The logic hurt, as that sort of thinking always did. He loved her. He also had to keep her away from him. At the moment it was alright, she didn't know and she didn't return his feelings but if ever she was stupid enough to, well he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep her safe. Maybe Tony was smart enough to tell her a version of events that made her so scared of him that she would avoid him, perhaps forever. Bruce didn't like the thought but he hoped that Tony had done it. He wondered why she'd come into his room if Tony had scared her off, it didn't make sense.

"Hi," Tony said from the door way. He had the decency to not meet Bruce's eye.

"What happened? Why was she there?" Bruce asked, sorting out all of the questions he needed to ask in a list in an effort to remain calm.

"I wanted to test the suit and give her some way to prove that she could be an Avenger too. What's wrong with that?" That very nearly snapped his cool.

"She could have been killed," Bruce spat through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, so could the Cap and Natasha and Clint and Thor and I but you didn't really seem to be that bothered. She survived, okay? When we found you I told her about Hulk since she seemed to be under the impression that he was a friend of hers and I thought you'd rather she got the right end of the stick! I don't know what happened when you found her in Pennsylvania but it sure as hell didn't knock any sense into her." Tony perched on the bed, knowing that his friend was only really angry at himself. It took Bruce a moment but he eventually deflated.

"Who was I kidding, Tony? There's no way I could ever," he began.

"Don't even go there. Yes, you've got a problem and you need to be careful about stuff but there is nothing stopping you having a relationship with someone. Even big angry green guys need some love." Tony grinned, batting Bruce's shoulder playfully. "You'll get her; I even have some good news for you. Turns out she and Steve aren't actually a thing!" The scientist looked up at him in surprise.

"Then tell me why they were kissing," Bruce snapped only to be cut off again.

"Turns out that was Steve's way of saying he wanted her to stay and then when they got back they mutually agreed that it wasn't really anything else. He went all red and mumbled although he was just being dramatic. He does like her but he'd back down if you were serious and just be that dude who tells you you're lucky and will beat you up if you break her heart type thing. You know the type. So cheer up and go tell her!" The enthusiasm was not mutual.

"I can't do that. I can't, Tony. I'm not like you; I don't take blows in my stride and wave things off. So someone turns you down, you'd be annoyed but only because you were expecting everyone to fall at your feet. I," he faltered and buried his head in his hands.

"You're scared you'll Hulk out on her, you're scared she'll reject you and you're wallowing in self-pity and angst. How many more problems do you want to add to that?"

"Go away, Stark." Tony got up and crossed the room.

"When you feel like acting maturely and have stopped being the stroppy teenager, I'll talk to you again," the billionaire said. "Come out of your little I'm so awful everyone hates me I suck bubble and grow up. She'll never go for you if you're just a pitiful puppy with a broken paw." He hadn't meant to be quite so nasty but somehow it just came out like that. Tony regretted his words when he saw the hurt on Bruce's face. "Bruce, I'm…"

"Get. Out." He left rather quickly.

Walking back to his workshop, trying to find a way to sort the situation out, Tony jumped a bit when Natasha appeared out of nowhere.

"Jeez, can't we tie a bell around your neck or something, so you don't give us heart attacks?" he asked. She didn't smile.

"Somehow Fury knows about Arella," she said.

"Shit."

… …

**Why do I always seem to end on a curse? I assure you I'm mostly a polite young lady. Keyword there being mostly.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

… …

Tony carried on swearing all the way back to his workshop, Natasha trailing behind him.

"How did this happen?" he asked her angrily. "How?"

"Maybe when you decided to involve her in a S.H.I.E.L.D. assignment?" Clint said appearing out of thin air as his partner had done a few minutes beforehand.

"Stop doing that!" Tony yelled at the assassins. "Knock or something! Anyway, she was nowhere near Fury or the army for the whole battle!" They simultaneously rolled their eyes at him.

"Do you really think Fury would miss an armoured Angel flying over Pennsylvania and fighting alongside the Avengers? He may not know her name or anything else but he does know she exists," Natasha told him. The billionaire glared at them.

"How do you know that he knows?" Clint held up his phone, the answer being self-evident. "Right. Now what?"

"Call everyone in and get Jane on the phone, she's one of us too. Then we explain S.H.I.E.L.D. to Arella and let Bruce beat you up," the Russian said, breezing past him on her way to the lounge. "I'll get Pepper," she called. Clint disappeared to the gym in order to locate Steve, leaving Tony with the job of going back into Bruce's room. He was not best pleased with the agents.

"Bruce?" he asked quietly, not completely entering the doorway. He couldn't see his friend on the bed and leaned further in.

"What do you want?" an unpleasant snap came from the direction of the wardrobe where Bruce was pulling on a shirt. Tony wished that he could just disappear like Natasha and Clint.

"It's, uh, Fury. He sort of knows, please come to the lounge instead of killing me." With that Tony scampered off in a hurry.

… …

"What's going on?" Steve asked as he and Clint joined the others. Bruce was sitting in a corner looking upset, Tony and Pepper stood in quiet conversation with Jane near the small screen on the desk and Natasha was using a pad to explain something to Arella. So far only the Captain was in the dark.

"Fury knows about Arella after her little stunt yesterday," Pepper said, clearly annoyed with the situation.

"I don't see problem. Natasha, Clint, Steve work Fury," Arella began.

"Yes, but we don't think they should know about you yet. S.H.I.E.L.D uses us as weapons, we do the things their guns and soldiers can't. We're trying to protect you, you didn't come here to join the army," Natasha answered.

"Did not mean come here. Sheld know about me now. Maybe I help you guys. Not a little girl." There was an awkward silence as they all looked around, not quite owning up to treating her like a child. Eventually Tony spoke up.

"We know that now. That's why I designed your armour, to prove to the others that you can be one of us. S.H.I.E.L.D isn't always right and being caught up with their people is dangerous but if you understand the consequences there's nothing we will do to keep you out of it." He meant it; Arella could take care of herself, especially if she had Bruce looking out for her. He suspected that Steve wouldn't let anything happen to her either. He would admit to trying to keep Pepper away from Fury and in the dark as much as possible because she was unable to defend herself like Arella or Natasha could.

"I suggest you guys call Fury," Jane said quietly from the screen. There was no need as mere seconds later the man called in.

"Well, it seems you have a new friend. One of you had better do some explaining, fast," the one-eyed man told them without even a hello. It may have been coincidence but more probably it was Natasha's planning that put Arella out of his line of sight. No one spoke for a moment.

"Director Fury, my name is Arella." They stared at her as she crossed to stand directly in front of the screen, wings slightly outstretched for maximum effect. Fury took her in without missing a beat.

"Would you care to explain how you came to Earth?" he asked. It was then that they realised Natasha had already planned and translated what Arella would say because the speech came in almost perfect English with only a slight lilt. She had been practising.

"On my world, we had a direct route to Asgard. The King ordered it to be destroyed when a military coup threatened. Some of us managed to repair it and I was supposed to be sent to Asgard. In order to stop the dictator from finding the portal it was rigged to explode as soon as I was through. We misjudged and the explosion landed me on Earth instead." She shot Natasha a glance to ask if she had remembered it all correctly. The Russian gave a minuscule nod.

"Why were you sent through?" They had anticipated Fury's next question.

"To stop a civil war." Only Pepper and Natasha actually understood what she meant.

"Are you certain that the portal is completely closed?"

"There was enough gun powder there to blow up a mountain. The two people who built it were in the centre, to destroy the knowledge as well."

"Barton, is this true?" All eyes went to the secretly confused Clint.

"Yes, sir. There's no way she could lie without us knowing." That in itself wasn't true, for all he knew Arella was an amazing liar in the same category as the Black Widow but he decided to trust her since Natasha obviously did and that was enough for him.

"Very well. I'll get back to you. Out." Fury's face vanished.

"I say right?" Arella asked quickly. Natasha nodded and flashed her the briefest smile.

"You did well, now at least Fury won't see you as an invasion threat. He may need some more persuading but we'll work on him," she answered. Both girls looked pleased with themselves despite the others being confused.

"Those people, who built the thing. They killed themselves to get you to Asgard?" Jane asked quietly. Arella nodded, her smiled vanishing.

"Better be blown up than tortured and executed." That silenced the group for a bit.

"I have to get back to work," Pepper said eventually, signalling that they should maybe go back to their various activities.

"I think we're wanted back at base," Clint added and he and Natasha said quick goodbyes before leaving. Steve also went back to Fury for debriefing. In the space of about five minutes only Tony, Bruce, Arella and Jane were still there. Jane excused herself and switched the screen off.

"I, uh, yeah," Tony muttered and exited the room quickly, still not quite comfortably talking to Bruce.

They stayed there for a moment in silence, Arella standing in the middle of the room and Bruce leaning against the corner.

"Are you scared of me?" he asked softly, dreading the answer.

"Hulk did not hurt me," she replied, thinking carefully. "No." Bruce let out a bitter laugh.

"Don't count on it again." She stepped closer to him.

"Natasha hear everything. She hear you speak with Tony." His blood temperature dropped about a dozen degrees. "I think Hulk won't hurt me." Bruce was frozen in place as she leaned over to kiss his cheek. He blinked and she was gone, leaving only a slightly warm spot on his cheek.

… …

**The last paragraph was purely for the Yoshinator **


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

… …

Steve paced the room, not prepared to admit that what he had just heard was bugging him. Clint was sitting on the floor counting out arrows and Natasha stood near the door.

"It's not possible. Banner tried it, he failed. It's not possible to duplicate the serum," the super soldier told himself over again.

"They had your blood, you DNA," Natasha added. "That's more than Bruce had." Steve shook his head, still not believing that the army of armoured soldiers they had faced was made of people like him.

"There's something wrong though. That was a test, just to see if they worked. When we actually do come up against an army of super-soldiers, we won't stand a chance. Tasha, you know you couldn't match Rogers in a fight, not really. Now imagine a whole army. Whoever made them didn't unleash his elite models, just the prototypes." Clint finished what was probably his longest speech ever. Steve gave him a surprised glance but Natasha, as always, didn't miss a beat.

"True. Without Thor we need Arella trained as quickly as possible. We also need to go back to the hospital we found you in and the compound Arella broke out of. Then we can find whoever is doing this."

... ...

Bruce didn't bother turning around when he heard Tony enter the lab.

"I'm too busy for games right now," he said. Tony kept on coming, arms folded and a frown on his face.

"Oh no, you're not doing this," the younger man told him.

"Doing what?"

"I'm not letting you get yourself down because you don't think you're good enough."

"I thought you weren't talking to me," Bruce said, still not looking up. Tony shrugged.

"Fine. I won't talk to you, I'll talk at you. I prefer it that way, means you can't answer back. So here goes. You're hurting yourself, simple as that. I, we remember what you said on the helicarrier, about um, the gun. I'm not letting you get that low again. You've got friends here, Bruce and we're willing to help you." Tony had planted himself directly in front of Bruce which was a mean feat since he had been bending over a desk.

"Friends I may kill at any time if I get wound up in a city of millions. Look at the damage I do. I was lucky I got to Central Park before changing and the other times I had someone I had to beat up. I'm tired of taking risks with people's lives, Tony. I'm tired of being a danger," he said, slumping his shoulders and running one hand through his hair. Tony very nearly hugged him; he looked so dejected and sad.

"Don't. Don't go. Please, Bruce," Tony pleaded. Tony Stark never pleaded or begged. He just got what he wanted and maybe sometimes he asked nicely. Well, he asked Pepper nicely but that was off topic.

"I can't stay. I never meant to stay after the whole Loki thing was over. I'm sorry, Tony, I shouldn't have come here." Bruce was mumbling now, clearing up his work desk. He had decided to leave months ago, but had never quite gotten round to it. Now he was convinced it was the right thing to do.

"No. You can't leave, it's rude. I won't let you. Nope. I'm telling JARVIS to lock your room so you can't get out. He won't let you out the front door. See, you can't leave." Tony was still trying to walk facing Bruce but was having difficulty. They continued up the stairs in the odd arrangement with Tony trying to push Bruce back down. Steve watched for a moment longer then set off at a run towards the gym.

"Arella!" he called before he had actually stepped through the door. Arella and Clint span around, both with loaded bows. Steve stopped, holding up his hands cautiously. Identical grins spread over their faces as they lowered their weapons.

"Arella, you have to come quick. I'll explain on the way," the blond man said and was out of the door again before she had even blinked. Steve never thought that he would be planning to say what he was about to say. He agreed that Bruce was a threat but the doctor didn't deserve the way he treated himself. Arella caught him up, shooting him a quizzical look as they entered the lift.

"Bruce is leaving. You have to make him stay," Steve explained. She stared at him, not quite believing this was coming from his mouth. Instead of answering she pressed the button for the floor where she slept.

"What are you... You have a plan?" Steve asked, confused.

"Yes. Bye, Steve." Surprisingly she hugged him and leapt out of the lift, brushing his side with a wing in her haste. He frowned, suspicious.

"What are you up to?" he asked even though she was gone.

Arella grabbed the bag that had once held everything she owned when she was about to leave with Thor. Into it she shoved her toothbrush, some clothes and a photo of the Avengers taken when Thor had been there. After a second's hesitation she put her guns and sword in there too. Grabbing a piece of paper she scribbled a note down what she hoped was legible English. Then she raced back to the lift. Moments later she was in the garage, slinging her bag into the boot of the car Tony had bought Bruce. Then she waited. About five minutes later Bruce appeared, lost in his own thoughts. He didn't even notice her until he was a few feet away.

"Don't even try to talk me out of this," he begged, not looking at her.

"Okay. You want to go? Okay." Bruce still looked down but was surprised. He nodded stiffly and went round to put his bag in the boot. Then he stopped.

"Not letting you go alone," she said simply and climbed into the car. "You no want me to come?" Bruce gave a look a man being pulled apart by four horses may have given on of the horses.

"You can't. I'm leaving to keep you all safe. I can't, you can't, be, come with me," he stammered back. She didn't budge.

"Please, Arella."

"Not letting you go," she said softly. "I'm not letting you go." He realised that she meant letting go of him, not letting him leave. She got up and came round to him.

"I'm not letting you go." Bruce's vision went white as her wings encased them both in a sort of feathery cocoon. His body and his brain seemed to no longer be attached as he found himself closer to her than he was before. Still, his brain couldn't make his arms stop from reaching out and cupping her face in his hands.

"I'm a monster, you don't deserve a monster," he whispered.

"You not deserve to hate yourself," she answered. Bruce's brain couldn't reply in time and his next excuse was lost as he tilted her face up and kissed her. He felt her hands touch his face and bury themselves in his hair. His brain then decided to simply give up and shut down for the moment.

Eventually Arella pulled away, resting her forehead against his.

"If you go, I go with you," she told him. "No excuses." Bruce felt a mixture of the joy at what she meant and dread mixed with self-loathing at what he was letting her do.

"No, you'll get hurt," he repeated. "I can't take you with me; I can't put you in danger."

"Then not make me fall love with you," Arella murmured, still as close as ever. "Maybe I be safe with you, Hulk keep me safe. Trust you, Bruce, trust both of you." Then she kissed him again. "Change your mind? Still help others with metal-men?" He sighed, realising that he had to stay, even if it was just to work out how they had copied Steve's abilities.

"Promise you'll stay out of their way. I don't think we'd handle you getting hurt." Then he saw her plan all along. She maybe would have come with him but she had meant to make him stay to help the Avengers. Still, he didn't argue when she nestled her head in the space between his shoulder and ear. It seemed that it had been made especially for her head to fit in perfectly. He closed his eyes and let the scent of pine trees wash over him. He guessed it had stuck from when she fell to earth. An angel.

**... ...**

**Not done yet, still got those pesky metal-man/Captain America hybrid things to deal with.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

… …

"So you're not leaving then," Tony said, slightly put out as Bruce and Arella reappeared. Bruce looked down awkwardly.

"Thought you could do with a hand," he answered. "If I haven't pissed you guys off too much." Tony took about a second to shrug.

"I only let two types of people piss me off, people I'm about to beat the hell out of and people with big green alter egos," Tony told them. "You fall into category two."

"Sorry about earlier," Bruce muttered. Tony waved it off and brought up the files on the metal-men he had been studying. Then he looked closely at the way his two friends were standing.

"Are you guys together now or what? Because normal people don't stand that close to each other, especially when one has wings." Bruce shrugged slightly; Arella simply stared back at Tony without looking away.

"Not your business, Stark," she said. He couldn't resist mouthing score to Bruce who went slightly red.

"Okay, so they have the Cap's DNA and can apparently duplicate the serum which everyone always said was impossible. Any ideas how, doc?" Tony was in his element, firing off questions and tapping screens faster than Arella could keep up with. To make her confusion worse, Bruce joined in.

"I don't think they could have duplicated the serum, maybe just transferred it by DNA, we're looking for a genetics specialist. I reckon we look for anyone who may have some way of getting to Schmidt's research and some leading genetic experts. Also, I'll ask Steve if I can borrow some DNA." They looked around for Arella.

"Don't touch that!" Tony yelled. "These are touch screens, you'll delete stuff." She lowered her hand slowly. Bruce stepped in before she could wind Tony up.

"Arella, can you go and get a bit of Steve? Hair, nail, blood, anything. Please?" Tony burst out laughing.

"Preferably blood, doubt you could find brains," he said. Bruce rolled his eyes, not agreeing on the 'let's kill Steve Rogers' front anymore. Arella shot them both kind of confused looks as she left the room. The second she was gone Tony turned on his friend.

"I just realised, she looks like Betty Ross," he said. Bruce stopped what he was doing for a second.

"No, she doesn't."

"Brown hair, okay Arella's is longer but they both have blue eyes and I think they even have the same nose. So, you went for a look-alike."

"No I didn't. Just stop it, Tony, okay? She's nothing like Betty." The younger man frowned at the note in his voice.

"You never told me what happened," he said slowly, not quite sure how far to push with this one.

"After about a year she sent me a message saying that she couldn't keep up a relationship where we never see each other and only sent messages infrequently via code. I managed to check up on her about a year before Loki, she'd married and had twins. Looked really happy," Bruce answered evenly. "So if you don't mind, I'd rather not go into the similarities between her and Arella."

"Okay, okay, back off, big guy. Is this the bit where I say Arella's way prettier than Betty?"

"No, this is the part where you shut up and get to work."

"Is this bit big enough?" Arella asked brightly as she re-entered the room, a fistful of blond hair in her hand and a very annoyed Steve behind her.

"Would someone car to explain why she just came into the gym and pulled out half my scalp?" The two scientists couldn't resist laughing at his expression.

"I asked her to get some DNA off of you so that I could see what the metal-men have got in their system and maybe a way to counter it. I didn't mean you had to take all of his hair!" Bruce shook his head at Arella who grinned.

"Hawkeye not let me get sword for the blood," she said, sending Tony into another fit of giggles. Steve scowled at them all.

"This is why I bothered?" he muttered darkly. "Okay, what news?"

"Lots of complicated science stuff your brain can't cope with," Tony answered, sticking a pencil in Bruce's side just to put Steve on edge.

"Ow. Okay, I need to do some thinking but I'm pretty sure whoever this is doesn't have a copy of the serum yet and so we just need to destroy their lab and research." Steve stared at Bruce.

"Are you kidding? The government needs the serum, we…"

"Shut up, Cap. We don't need more of you. There's a reason this stuff hasn't been found, it shouldn't be," Tony butted in. Bruce was nodding wearily.

"Take it from me, Steve. We don't need more super-soldiers, I know what they do. Not everyone's a saint in spangles." Steve backed down, remembering the file he had read on Bruce's past.

"So we go blow them up?" Arella asked from where she was studying a screen with absolutely no comprehension. At a safe distance, of course.

"She's a bloodthirsty one, isn't she? I bet Natasha loves you," Tony commented. "Yes, these people have managed to piss me off and they fall into category one."

"Great, so when do we go?" Clint asked as he popped up out of thin air.

"STOP DOING THAT!" Shrieked Tony. "Seriously, what do they feed you at S.H.I.E.L.D.? Silence sauce on your pasta?"

"There's just one problem. We don't know where they are. Both the hospital and the compound have been searched. Nothing," Steve said.

"Cat wait by cheese, mouse always come," Arella stated, sounding like Chinese proverb factory.

"We need cheese then," said Bruce. She held up the fistful of Steve's hair she was still holding. "Cheese?" Tony sniggered.

"Yup, Captain Cheese-puff, you're bait." He found that quite funny.

"Oh, joy. Why do they even need me again?" Steve asked, still massaging his scalp.

"I think they need more of your DNA, if they haven't got the serum they need to transfer some to each individual which means a lot of you is needed to make an army," Bruce explained.

"Right, Captain America is now bait. Go parade around showing off your DNA and wait until the creeps come."

"This doesn't sound like one of your better ideas, Stark."

… …

**No updates over the weekend because of Summer in the City, yay! Hey, am I not allowed to go to a YouTube gathering just because you guys want updates? Well that's not fair.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

… …

Steve stood in the middle of a field, feeling pretty stupid. He glared at the dummy, replacing its head with Tony's. Bruce and Arella had gone to retrace their steps in an attempt to find the gun she had stolen when she had broken out of the compound and look up fingerprints. Tony was supposedly somewhere nearby to step in if Steve needed him to. Not that he would at all be needed or step in but it was considered polite. Steve hit the dummy and proceeded to do what Bruce had said: show off.

"You look like a prat standing there, this is so obviously a trap. Only an idiot would actually come for you here," Tony's voice called from behind him. He had just landed and was taking off his helmet in the heat.

"It was your idea," Steve told him.

"No Captain Cheese-puff, this was Arella's idea. Anyway, they've found the gun and are heading back to try and get some fingerprints off of it." Tony dodged the dummy as it was thrown at him. "Did I not tell you?" Steve ignored him and headed back to the car.

… …

Bruce stared at the data without really looking. He had found the gun, managed to salvage enough DNA from the shreds of skin in the trigger to find the guy who had owned it was on S.H.I.E.L.D's database. He gave Tony the file and let him find the address. It was all slightly too easy but that wasn't what was bugging him. Arella had made him promise to stay and help find whoever created the metal-men. He already had enough to link the guard to another man whose DNA was found at the hospital that they had rescued Steve from. So he was now simply waiting for them to confirm that he had got it right.

"Boo!" Tony yelled as he entered the lab. Bruce jumped slightly but didn't turn around.

"You are going to give Steve nightmares if you make a habit of trying to scare me," the doctor muttered.

"But you wouldn't be here if you couldn't cope so what's the problem?" Tony countered.

"The problem is I don't want to have to keep a tight hand on myself every time you get too close to pushing my buttons! I don't want to be a danger," he answered, not looking him in the eye. Tony shrugged and poked him with a pen.

"We've had this conversation before and look what happened. I don't think you can stay away, no matter how much you say you want to. You just keep on coming back because we're the only ones who accept you. So stop trying to leave, just stay and learn to cope." Tony had the ability to get in the way no matter where Bruce tried to move to.

"I think I'll just sit this one out, it's more covert than I'm good with," he said. "Arella should too."

"Give her a chance and she can be one of us. You don't have the right to choose that for her."

"Neither do you!" That made Tony back off ever so slightly as Bruce slammed his hand down on the desk. "I'm sorry."

"Neither of you choose. I help with metal-men, help Steve he think it his fault and he upset. You not even notice. Then I go with you and no more Hulk threat in New York. Go somewhere quiet no people to hurt. My choice," Arella said suddenly from the doorway.

"Okay, Natasha taught you that! I'm sure that doesn't help the whole stress thing," Tony complained. "How can you be silent with those wings?"

"Live in country where man in charge wants to kill you, you be quiet."

… …

Bruce paced the living room, trying to block out the inane reality TV show Pepper was watching. She had moved her chair to get a view without his occasional legs crossing the screen. They had been in those positions for about three hours.

"They'll call soon," Pepper told him for the hundredth time. It was true, both Steve and Arella had called frequently to update them, something that usually didn't happen when it was just Pepper. It didn't stop Bruce from pacing around, trying to keep calm. He wasn't anywhere near Hulking out, just agitated which he tried to avoid. Being agitated was the prelude to being angry.

He didn't want to know what was happening in the same way that Pepper didn't want to know. At the same time he needed to know that Arella and the others were alright. He found himself worrying about Tony's overconfidence and replayed the fuzzy memory he had of Hulk catching him as he fell, about Natasha's lack of armour, Clint's weakness in hand to hand combat and Steve's heroism in the event of civilians trapped in the crossfire. Something was wrong, he was worrying about Steve. The call made him leapt three feet into the air, making Pepper jump even more.

"It's okay," he reassured her. They both stared at the phone with a mixture of fear and anticipation.

"Hi, guys! Everything's fine, just to let you know." Tony was cut off by a loud explosion. "Yup, totally spiffing."

"Stop lying, Stark," Bruce said, standing as still as a statue as he listened.

"Um, Natasha's broken her leg. She's not happy and now Hawkeye is a bit mad at me for letting it happen. Angel's fine and so is Captain Cheese-puff. Big battle, you know the drill we'll be home in time for tea. Oh, turns out that they had some temporary DNA transfer going on and the Captain had to give them some more of himself if they wanted to make more soldiers. We blew everything sky-high with the help of Fury and now we're on our way back. No planet ending war or anything." They both breathed out sighs of relief.

"Still going with her plan, Bruce?" Tony asked.

"Yes. See you later." He cut off the link and refused to answer Pepper's questioning gaze.

"Don't you think we've seen how Arella's plans go pear shaped? She planned to go to Asgard and didn't, she planned to evade Fury and didn't; now whatever this is?" Bruce couldn't really work out what to say.

… …


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

… …

Arella landed beside Tony, avoiding the rings that came to remove his suit. Bruce and Pepper were already waiting for them just inside the glass room. The moment she was through the door Bruce had wrapped his arms around her and done a visual check for any injuries. Finding none he simply held onto her.

"Okay, apparently Arella is not allowed to breathe or even remove her weapons," Tony said loudly to no one in particular. Bruce stepped back slightly, letting her take off her helmet. Chocolate coloured curls bounced around down to her waist as the halo-shaped headgear came off.

"See, breathing is good," continued Tony. "So is not having armour on all the time."

"Leave them alone," Pepper told him, lightly batting his face. She was still thinking about what he had said, that Bruce was going to follow Arella's plan. As if he could mind read, which in all probability he probably could, Tony opened his mouth.

"So, when are you guys leaving?" Pepper stared at them, shocked.

"You're leaving? Why? Oh, please don't! We love having you all here, please don't go!" She rushed over to hug Arella tightly.

"Bruce does not want be danger to New York, or friends. Got to have someone look after him," Arella answered, flicking him a dry smile. Pepper turned on him.

"But we love having you here! You can work on it, surely? You saved Tony's life, which must mean something! Please, Bruce, don't go and don't take Arella with you." Tony stepped in and held her so that she couldn't do anything more embarrassing. Bruce couldn't meet her eye, his own guilt at upsetting his friends and letting Arella go with him was eating him up.

"Stop it, Pepper," Tony said quietly.

"That's why the others aren't here, you didn't even…" She was cut off by a slightly frustrated Tony.

"Clint took Natasha to get her leg patched up, they already knew and Arella told Steve before we left. He's gone to debrief with Fury. Okay? It's not forever, you'll still see them, it's just that having Bruce in the middle of New York is not the best idea in the world." Finally she pulled herself together and nodded.

"I'm sorry, look, it's fine. Do you need a hand packing?" she asked meekly. Arella led the way out of the room.

"You'll come back," Tony repeated with a sure smile. "I just know you will. She'll make you come back just so that she can see us." Bruce rolled his eyes and sighed.

"You're probably right. Besides, I'm still looking for a cure so you never know, maybe one day." He left it hanging there, as if completing his hopes would curse them.

"Yeah, I think you should stop. The world needs protecting and we're their guardians. See, Arella even looks like a guardian angel. There's nothing wrong with having the other guy, you just need to loosen up. Don't tell me, it's pointless to go over this again. Just promise me you'll look after yourself, okay? Not in the 'don't get killed' way because you've got Hulk for that, but in your head." Bruce nodded, a smile creeping over his face.

"I've got Arella for that, a guardian angel looking after my heart." Tony mimed puking.

"Way too sweet for me to handle. Go before you make me sick."

… …

Bruce realised that Arella and Tony had already said goodbye on the way back, maybe even before that and she had spoken to Pepper as they packed. He hugged the blond woman and thanked her for everything she'd done. He was glad that Arella had made him stay, it seemed much less like they were running away now. After a moment of feather arranging she managed to get into the mustang Tony had more or less forced them into taking, Bruce having decided that it was polite to at least try and give it back. Then he drove off, feeling pretty wretched about the whole thing.

"Stop it. Stop, uh, betting yourself down," Arella told him.

"Beating myself up. I can't help that I feel bad about taking you with me. You shouldn't be coming, you don't. Oh, never mind, you're not going to change your mind now." She grinned.

"I was trained to not. If you did not want me to come, I would stay. But you do. Stop not giving yourself what you want." Bruce couldn't help but share her grin slightly.

"You are amazingly trusting, you haven't even asked where we're going," he said.

"No difference does it make, I do not know maps here. So where we are going?"

"Montana, there are mountains and forests and not many people. I used to be able to hide and move around without the authorities knowing but we can't do that anymore. Don't look like that; it's not your fault! I never was very good at languages so our only other option would have been Canada or to cross the Atlantic again. There's this house up in the mountains that's been abandoned but it was liveable when I was there about two years ago. It's probably still standing." As they stopped at the traffic lights, surrounded by New York cabs, she leaned over to kiss him. A driver beside them gave an encouraging hoot of his horn, making Arella laugh.

… …

"Tony, come and look at this!" Pepper called. He was on the sofa about ten seconds later, two cocktails in his hands.

"What's up?" She pointed to the TV screen where the news reader was speaking.

"One of the victims was thirty-two year old Elizabeth Ross who was airlifted to hospital but later died of her injuries." Tony grabbed the remote.

"What happened?" he asked frantically.

"Some teenagers set fire to a gas station in Oklahoma, did you know her?" Tony had now begun to swear loudly.

"No, but she was Bruce's ex, she was there when he had the accident and through everything in New York. She left him because of the not seeing each other secrets thing, he didn't say it exactly but I reckon that's what made him try to shoot himself. If he sees a news bulletin when he's with Arella, he'll be upset and have to explain it all to her." Pepper stared at him.

"Let's hope he doesn't watch any TV, or have the radio on until we can break the news to him gently."

… …

**Only the epilogue left and then it's done. ;( I haven't finished with Bruce and Arella yet though, the epilogue will be a taster for the sequel. I will do the annoying thanks bits in the next chapter **


	21. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

… …

Arella stared at the strip of grey sky visible through the uncomfortably large hole in the roof.

"Still standing," Bruce said defensively.

"No bed," she pointed out. He blushed slightly and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "No roof. Bruce, there is snow outside and here!" He shrugged, looking sheepish.

"Yeah but the roof is intact in the bedroom so we won't be snowed on. Plus there's running water." She glared at the sink, less than impressed. With a long-suffering sigh she turned the tap. It squealed in protest but gave up a trickle of freezing cold water.

"You are lucky I had hide in mountains with no water," she told him.

"Very lucky," he answered and kissed the back of her head as he went outside to get their bags from the car. Left alone she began to clear the leaves from the sink into a pile to be swept up later. Upon finding a large spider's nest she decided that cleaning the sink would be one of Bruce's jobs.

Arella looked around for the source of the ringing noise that had suddenly started. She found Bruce's phone lying on the remains of what once would have been a table. It was now a lump of damp wood. She stared at the device for a moment before remembering how to answer it.

"Hello?" She yelled, not yet sure how loudly you were meant to talk on into it.

"Arella, thanks hell you answered. Is Bruce with you?" Tony's voice came crackling down the line with a strange note of panic she hadn't heard before.

"No, I can go get him." She began to walk towards the door.

"No! No, it's you I need to talk to. There's something important you need to know about. Do you know Betty Ross?" Arella shook her head before realising that Tony couldn't see her.

"No. Why?" She couldn't put a face to the name even though she was sure she'd heard it before. Overheard it actually, between Tony and Bruce. No other information presented itself in connection with the name.

"Before the accident Bruce was in love with her, they both worked at the research centre and all that. When the Hulk was created she was there, in the operating room and he put her in hospital. Later, when he came out of hiding he went back to her to try and find a cure for the other guy. Briefly they got back together and he can tell you about what happened with this crazed guy who also became a Hulk thing another time. He went on the run again and after about a year of them sending secret messages she told him she couldn't take anymore and left him. He got pretty low for a while. She was married, had kids and he's completely in love with you."

"Why tell me this, Tony? If Bruce want me know he can tell me," she interrupted crossly.

"Two days ago Betty Ross was killed in a fire." The line went silent for a long time.

"Okay," she said quietly.

"You're not going to tell him, are you?" Tony accused her. "Arella, if he finds out any other way he'll Hulk out or worse. He didn't say but I get the feeling he tried to end it all after she left him. Whilst he's head-over-heels for you this will hurt him so badly."

"I will. Bye, Tony." She cut him off before he could answer. Lost in her own thoughts she stopped noticing the damp, the leaves on the floor, the holes in the roof and the cracked windows. All she saw was Bruce feeding a curious squirrel a biscuit out of his hand, crouching in the snow. Between them was the only intact window in the house. She felt like she was holding a rock in her hand and had to choose whether to pass it to him, shattering the peacefulness and idyllic picture in the process.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

**I'm sorry but that's it. There will be a sequel soon, I promise!**

**Yoshinator: The next one will have as much of them together as I can possibly work into it, thank you for routing for Bruce all the way!**

**Little-miss-randomness17: Thanks for your little comments**

**To everyone else: Thanks for reading and to you all for favouriting.**

**Okay, um, will you kill me if I just put this bit in?**

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

**The Deamon And The Angel**

… …

Arella stared up at the building, straight along the arrow shaft pointing at her. Eyes narrowed, bow taunt, ready to release. She didn't move. The smoke drifting around did nothing to mar his view of her.

"Fire, Hawkeye, just fire," she murmured although he couldn't hear her. She couldn't stop the tears flowing down her cheeks any more than she could stop the blood flowing from Steve's collar.

"Arella!" She turned to see Bruce running towards her except she didn't really see Bruce; it was Tchako again about to push her out of the way, about to take the arrow himself. He crashed into her, spinning into the path of the missile. She couldn't let it happen, not again. It happened every time she closed her eyes, every nightmare. This wasn't a nightmare, it was real. She sidestepped him, pushing him behind her and spreading her wings to cover him.

"No!" Natasha screamed over the link, deafening her partner. The Avengers turned to see Bruce doubled over, a mass of white wings in his arms. Cruel laughter echoed over the street. Thor charged at the figure dressed in black, hitting nothing but shadows.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?"


End file.
